No place like home
As summer vacation draws to a close and my school year begins, I can’t help but think that I am returning home after a summer abroad. After a dozen years…
Skookum!
Elysha rarely calls me by name. Like most couples, we have developed a series of pet names and nicknames for one another. Skookum, a word that means the best (and…
Did they use straws to empty the pools?
Did you know that skateboard parks began with southern California skateboarders in the 1970’s known as Z-Boys, who would trespass into neighbor’s backyards, empty the pool and use it as…
Is it time for product placement in fiction?
A month after my first novel, SOMETHING MISSING, hit the store shelves, I began receiving the occasional but persistent email from readers asking and oftentimes accusing me of having made product…
Knock! Knock!
For the third time this week, I have found myself in a single-person public restroom, door locked, conducting my business, when someone attempts to open the door, discovers it locked,…
The backhanded compliment bio
Last night’s appearance at Posman Books in Chelsea Market went well, and the turnout was terrific. Anytime a bookseller must drag out more chairs and offer stools to a standing-room…
Contest runner-up #2
Cheryl Harris entered my biography contest with this entry, which I adore, perhaps a little too much. Since author bios are ordinarily assumed to have been written in part by the…
Name your kid after me or don’t. No middle ground.
I don’t understand people who think that naming their child after a grandparent or other relative only requires the use of the first letter in the name. “My son’s name…
Susan Stamberg confirms that I’m not old man.
In a character analysis of Eric Cartman from South Park, NPR’s Susan Stamberg played a famous rant from the foul mouthed cartoon boy. She then said, “If you don’t recognize…
The Page 69 Test
Marshall McLuhan recommends that the book browser turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book. It works. Following this theory,…
