What does summer mean to you? I love the warmth, the brightness, the freedom. The way the whole world seems to open up and bask. When I was a kid, summer was a time for friends, activities, and travel. Lots of swimming and riding my bike and randomly knocking on friends’ doors. I always loved… Read more »
Wonders of Shadow Key is alive! “It’s alive! It’s alive!” cries Dr. Frankenstein in the original Frankenstein movie, and I’m just as excited to say that Wonders of Shadow Key has been zapped into existence by the publishing world, courtesy of Regal House Publishing. However, unlike the monster in the Frankenstein book or any of… Read more »
Last summer, my wife and I were traveling through Asheville, North Carolina, so of course we had to stop at the famous Malaprop’s bookstore, where I came across Sisterhood of Sleuths. I recognized the author as my former student at St. Mary’s College of California, Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. Jenn was a wonderful writer at St…. Read more »
Since I last wrote, things have happened. Some are good things. Others, not so much. This post is about a couple of those “other things.” I was having a great Christmas week visiting family across the state in West Palm Beach. My father and brother live there. My other siblings, kids, and nephews all flew… Read more »
I’ve always been fascinated with remote places. When I’m procrastinating at my desk, I sometimes bring up Google Maps and zoom in on cold, distant islands, dense jungles, or vast deserts, trying to imagine the landscape and the lives of the few who live there. For a while, I wrote a social media post each… Read more »
I started this past summer working on three books. For a while, I worked on all three at once—an hour or two per day on each one. One of them is a book of “literary tours” of Florida that I’m editing for University Press of Florida. It’s not your typical tour guide. Instead of the… Read more »
I learned of The Curse on Spectacle Key just as I was finishing the manuscript of Wonders of Shadow Key. I heard about it the way I hear about a lot of good books—from my wife. My wife is a media specialist (a.k.a. school librarian, a.k.a. Book Lady, a.k.a. Mrs. Library Teacher) at an… Read more »
As promised, I’m releasing another children’s story from the DREAMERS OF RAINBOW TERRACE collection. Rainbow Terrace is a fictional town where strange and magical things happen. This is the collection I wrote for my kids many years ago, and it’s inspired by Carl Sandburg’s ROOTABAGA STORIES. The stories in DREAMERS OF RAINBOW TERRACE are designed… Read more »
Every once in a while, I’ll post a short book review here. Mostly middle grade books, but maybe some others, too. I’m going to begin with Maybe There Are Witches, a novel for middle graders by Jude Atwood. The short review: it’s good; get it and read it—especially if you like creepy stories! The slightly… Read more »
Lots of writers have animals that keep them company while they write. Some call them Muses, after the Ancient Greek goddesses who inspire artists, writers, and scientists. Some call them Familiars, after the medieval supernatural animals who protect and assist witches. After all, writers are a kind of witch when you get right down to… Read more »
