News

When I told my friend, Francine Roche Kay, that I was reading St. Helena - The Most Significant Woman in Human History: From Tavern Maid to Saint: the Woman Who Found the True Cross and Changed the Faith of Civilization, she was excited and said that it sounded right up her alley. Then I told her it was narrative nonfiction and gave examples of dialogue from the book. Her mind duly changed. This genre deserves a definition. Also referred to as creative or literary nonfictio

This book looked interesting to me. And, I think, it was on sale. And I’ve as of late added nonfiction books to my usually steady diet of mystery and urban fiction. St. Helena - The Most Significant Woman in Human History: From Tavern Maid to Saint: the Woman Who Found the True Cross and Changed the Faith of Civilization, by Steve Castlen, looks like a book with a lesson to impart. I hope I’m not too dense to comprehend it. As usual, I’ll share my review when I’m finished r

I’ve been a fan of westerns for as long as I can remember. Certain revisionist Westerns, such as Unforgiven (1992), have had a profound impact on me. I want to see more, and I want to see them done well. So when I caught wind that Elmore Leonard had written westerns, over thirty-eight published ones—yeah, I’m sometimes late to learn such things—I was thrilled. Thrilled, I tell you. Gunsights, one of his later ones, published in 1979, was a joy to read. From what I’ve seen o

There’s nothing like a balletically violent action film to start your Sunday morning. The intermittent splashy gore only adds to it. Ballerina (2025), from the World of John Wick, is just such a film. This is a revenge movie, much like many great action films, taking place in a world where, incongruously, analog communication systems work seamlessly with digital ones. I used to think that this worldbuilding choice was simply stylistic, which it is, but it also explains how t

This film is a lot of fun. Having read the play and seen the movie over twenty years ago, I now recall the absurdity, witty dialogue, philosophical insights, and the suggestions of discovery without payoffs that define Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). “Deaths for all ages and occasions. Deaths of kings and princes…and nobodies.” This quote by the Lead Actor (Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws), while deftly defining what tragedy is, encapsulates the premise of this film quit

A western written by one of today’s greatest and most prolific crime novelists? Please, please, please sign me up! I really look forward to reading Gunsights: An Action-Packed Western Where Arizona Legends Become Enemies, by Elmore Leonard. As soon as I’m done, I’ll share my thoughts. And admiration.

I must confess, I preferred the movie over the book. In many cases, I read the book before I watch the film, but since the movie was chosen by my Weekly Movie Club—a bunch of college buddies and I get on Zoom every Sunday evening to discuss movies and other bull%#@t—decided on viewing the film, I did so, and decided to read the novel afterwards. And I didn’t think I would be so indifferent at first. Usually, I’m a bigger fan of the source material than I am of an adaptation.

Since I’ve recently watched the film, I’m curious about how different the novel The African Queen is from the celluloid medium. Supposedly, there are marked changes, but I did not investigate any of these, since I wanted to witness them firsthand. I hope to be in for an enjoyable read, all in all. As usual, I’ll share my thoughts when I’m done reading.

Americans are a**holes. There, I said it. If there are any takeaways from Vengeance: The Last Stands of Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull, by Tom Clavin, it’s the above statement. The book chronicles the events preceding Little Bighorn and ends with the massacre of Wounded Knee. It also provides details of everyone involved in these events. George Custer, with his larger-than-life confidence and battlefield savvy, took many risks in his military career, most of which pa

Marrying genres has always been a thing in literature. From A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, which blends time travel and satire, to The Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov, a whodunit murder mystery set in a dystopian future, to that scarefest cinematic experience Alien (1979), horror and science fiction, to the quintessential Blade Runner (1982), a blend of cyberpunk and noir, there are many, many examples of shaking up two genres to see what come up.

Why do female empowerment films anger men so much? Or should I say, some men? Are they fearful? Worried about their tenuously dominant place in society? Or are they so wholly insecure in their masculinity that anyone resembling a strong female is a direct attack to their very being? Films like Suffragette (2015), Hidden Figures (2016), and of course the landmark feminist film, Thelma and Louise (1991), are all examples of films that exhibit women who rise above societal norms

What is it about secret, rogue, quasi-governmental agencies that’s so appealing? From The Syndicate in The X-Files, to SD-6 in Alias, to Caddis in Butterfly, even The Bureau of Paranormal Research in Men In Black, what do they all mean? What do they signify? Are they an allegory for the wishful, defiant, bird-flippers in all of us? Or do they signify something else? Hitman (2007), based on the popular video game, doesn’t seek to answer any of these questions. But it plays th

Katherine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) has great facial expressions. Couple these with Humphrey Bogart’s (The Maltese Falcon) large, expressive eyes, and you have a formula for guaranteed on-screen chemistry. Why didn’t they work together in other films? The African Queen (1951), based on the C.S. Forester novel—which I duly added to my TBR List—is an exotic adventure romance about two completely different people working together against all odds towards a common goal: an ac

I love a good historical tale, especially if it’s about the Old American West. Vengeance: The Last Stands of Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull, by Tom Clavin, appears to fit this bill. I look forward to an even, non-judgmental account of all sides of this conflict, along with any humanity therein. As usual, I’ll share my thoughts when I'm done reading this book.

I want to emulate Raymond Chandler. I really, really do. His prose is the stuff of genius; I can read his works again and again. The Big Sleep, the first of the Phillip Marlowe novels, refines the storied hardboiled detective, the cynical protagonist, the archetypal antihero, first introduced by Dashiell Hammett (of whose works I’d read again and again, as well). Regardless of his approach, his ethical principles remain unwavering, and he dedicates his efforts not merely to

“Keyser Söze!” Wait…wrong film. But there’s a reason I’m mentioning this cinematic monster, alluding to The Usual Suspects (1996). I went into watching Abigail (2024) from a comment I overheard last weekend at BaltiCon 60. The congoer alluded to the film, especially the ending, hinting that Krystoff Lazar (Matthew Goode, Watchmen) is a monster, a classic monster, the classic monster, in his own right. Also, knowing what it was about—and this is another example of a film whe

Firstly, I love this movie, and can watch it again and again. That being said, here are my thoughts for this most recent viewing. The Big Lebowski (1998) is a film by the arthouse wunderkind filmmaker brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo). They admittedly wanted to create a film that’s a valentine to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep—which I am currently re-reading—while making some specific, and quite hilarious, changes. Jeff Bridges (The Fisher King) stars as The Dude, a hap

After I decided to self-publish Arrested Souls: Book One of the Ecto-Files, which was only a few days ago, as I was driving home form BaltiCon 60, I was eager to get going! I contacted graphic artists who were also publishers, received proposals and sample book covers, and even put aside funds to start it all! Then I had a conversation with my good friend, fellow writer, and artist Francine Roche Kay. She told me that AS had to be as nearly perfect as I could make it, that I

Back to the Classics. I’ve read Raymond Chandler before, a few times, because his creation, Phillip Marlowe, is one of my inspirations for Duncan Griffiths, the main character in The Ecto-Files, a series of urban fantasy books I am currently writing. I am re-reading this story to get reintroduced to Chandler’s voice, his style. This will not be the first Phillip Marlowe novel that I re-read. As usual, I’ll share my thoughts when I am through.

I’ve finished a short story, which GoodReads considers a book, but my close friend does not. If a piece of literature falls under a specific page or word count—the actual number escapes me at the moment—she removes it from her GoodReads list. But I don’t do that. I read—no, I consume—so many books per year that one shorty like “Randomize” by Andy Weir would not really matter to the overall count. Which for me is over one hundred. Am I, heh, shorting myself by including these