Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

  COMING SOON! I’ll be roaming the internet, meeting with bloggers across the planet to talk about KILL’T DEAD OR WORSE. Check in regularly in January to see interviews, excerpts, spotlights, and reviews. Plus, there may be a giveaway here and there. Just saying.  So shake off your New Year’s hangover and join in the […]

What happens when an author finds himself an editor? Like every writer out in the world, I have received loads of rejections from the non-response to the one line boiler plate to the occasional thoughtful note. I’ve had my blunders. Sending a query without the submission attached. Reviewing a submission post-query to find one too […]

If you’re into jazz and if you’re into vocal jazz, you know Al Jarreau. I came across this bit of video from a German telecast in 1976 which gives us all a glimpse at this artist’s brilliance. Take Five, the Dave Brubeck jazz standard is taken to new and wonderful places. I love his percussive, […]

I love a good eggplant parmesan, or as chef Jamie Oliver calls it, aubergine parmesan, or in Italian, melanzane alla parmigiana. However you say it, the dish is one of the best ways to enjoy this odd vegetable. One of the reasons I haven’t made eggplant parmesan very often is the process of frying the eggplant. […]

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Posted: 7th December 2015 by jazzdog in History, Uncategorized
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On December 7th my thoughts always turn to my father and the pivotal events in Hawaii in 1941. He was a young man in the Army based at Hickam Field as an airplane mechanic. With the attack on Hawaii, he quickly trained to become a bombardier and soon found himself in the jungles of Guadalcanal. When […]

Don’t You Love Writing?

Posted: 28th April 2014 by jazzdog in Uncategorized, Writing
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In my mind, I have an image of the perfect place to write. I’m in a cabin in the woods at a desk facing an open window with a view of snow covered mountains. Pots of hot tea magically appear with the occasional cookie. The strong wifi signal attaches me to a massive cable providing […]

A great joy in my life, other than writing, has been flying. Not the big commercial jets, but small, single engine airplanes. One of the basic things every pilot learns sooner or later is that the more you try to control the airplane, the less control you have. When I first started flying, I recall […]

I’ve been featured on the Writers League of Texas blog to promote their literary contest. A sci-fi manuscript of mine, SHAPER, won in the sci-fi/fantasy category and the first Nick Sibelius novel, TOXIC RELATIONSHIP, was a finalist in the 2011 contest. Check it out.  

Continuity, especially in a longer novel with a complex plot, can be a real challenge. As the story evolves from the first draft, every aspect of the novel deepens with detail. The setting, from the time of day, time of year, climate, architecture, flora and fauna–the list is almost endless–becomes more defined on the second, […]

James Stewart’s column in the New York Times, “Long Odds for Authors Newly Published”  about J.K. Rowling aka Robert Galbraith’s book, Cuckoo’s Calling  has left me pondering what writing is all about these days.  In the article, Stewart discusses how Cuckoo’s Calling under the Galbraith name had to be shopped around at publishers and then, depending on […]