“California”
Kevin Starr agrees with HH Bancroft that the name "California" comes from a 16th century Spanish novel. Indeed, after explaining how in 1862 Edward H. Hale (author of "The Man…
California History
Last year I spent a lot of time researching California's El Camino Real. I was trying to discover the original route, hoping to retrace it on a bike ride with…
Depredations
I just finished œA Fate Worse Than Death, a book on Indian captivities in the 1800s. That is, white settlers (the authors did not cover Mexican captivities), primarily from Texas, taken as hostages by Native American raiders. The subject was interesting, but like a few other popular history books I™ve read, the writing was crappy.
Every animal has just enough brains to tan its hide
I™ll bet you didn™t know that. I didn™t either. I™ve been reading about Plains Indians, and more specifically, about Indian abductions of white settlers in the early- to mid-1800s.
Process and Novel Writing
The process of writing a novel is daunting. There are probably as many means and systems as there are writers. I found one that seems promising, and I have been…
Tropes and Clichés
As I stated earlier, I decided to make the protagonist of my first novel an amateur sleuth. As all other decisions in getting started on a novel, I worried about…
Thoughts on Writing a First Novel
My friend Rick, who has been designing and building custom bikes for over 30 years, says that building a bike for someone is like walking naked down the middle of…
Steinbeck and Travels With Charlie
It turns out that Steinbeck™s purportedly nonfiction account of his tour of America circa 1962 in a camper, Travels With Charlie in America, may be largely fiction after all. Maybe. …
Bullet in the Brain
Bullet in the Brain is a short story written by Tobias Wolff and originally published in New Yorker magazine in the September 25, 1995 issue. At just under 2,000 words,…
Tolstoy on a Late Spring
"Spring was a long time unfolding. During the last weeks of Lent the weather was clear and frosty. In the daytime it thawed in the sun, but at night it…