There is a culture, on the road.
That isn’t exactly right. Maybe I should have said, there is a culture OF on the road. Or maybe I should have said: There is a culture of “on the road.”
I mean it in the way they used to talk about a “ tribal culture.” And actually, I should have just said tribe.
There is a tribe of “on the road.”
James Michener wrote about it once in “Drifters.” I was one of those, on one of the circuits between Europe and the Mideast and India. Others … Read more…
At the first hotel in Costa Rica, I realized I had no clue of where to head next. But I had a month and could take it a day at a time. After all, I never expected to to have an interest in butterflies.
My first exposure to butterflies was decades ago, long before I’d heard anything about the “butterfly effect,” or metamorphosis, or anything to do with the bug, which really didn’t interest me.
It was from Chuang Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, who wrote something to the effect: “I dreamt I was a butterfly, happily flying among … Read more…
In little more than a day, I’m off to Costa Rica. Took a photo of home, and a dinner from the last week to test the camera and the links. (Click here for photos. Please let me know if something is not working).
Those pictures are also to remind me what I get to come back to when I’m stuck for a day or two in a bus station where fluorescent lights draw clouds of bugs with teeth, stingers, or suckers, and the hotel, if any, is too far to walk at 3 a.m.
On the other hand, my hope is … Read more…
Giveaway ends March 01, 2014. We have about 200 people signed up so far for 10 books (These 10 books are signed, with a printed list of discussion questions). Odds are still pretty good.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
I sent the first draft of a short book, a novella, off to a publisher yesterday. It is rough, very rough. Names used for characters in one place change to other names later on. Answers given at the end need questions in the beginning. In places, it is just childishly awkward.
It sits at 41,500 words, right at the cusp between novella and novel. When I started it, I intended it to be about 20,000 to 25,000 words, broken into four parts, each for sale on Amazon for 99¢, $2.99 for all four. That changed, somewhere along the line.
I … Read more…
Surprises every turn. Over Christmas, a friend invited me down to Costa Rica. He’s down there at a newish job, had lovely things to say about the area, the country, and I’d always wanted to see it. He’s got a house a minute from the beach where he’s learning to surf, friends, and knowledge of the terrain. But I wasn’t sure if he really meant it or was just being nice, and I had things to do.
Oh yeah.
Then a couple of weeks ago, he reiterated the invite, and asked if I would assist his lovely and fun fiance to … Read more…
Decades ago a dear friend, Bill, drove up my driveway with a very young boy. His brand new wife, a very unstable woman, had just committed suicide. The boy was her son.
Bill left the child with my wife and me for the day. We had a good time, if I remember. He played on the deck in a huge stainless bowl full of water. Late in the day, Bill came back and picked up the boy.
I don’t know when I realized Bill was trying to place his lost son with a family who could care for him. My … Read more…
Hi, Erik,
I have just completed Chalice and I loved it.
As a lover of English Literature (and taught Latin as well), I appreciated your email style of communication in our modern world, and the intense capture of two people developing in love.
Would love to discuss Chalice with you sometime.
I was at Dudley’s when you approached our book club, and handed out a copy. One of our book club members received it first, but I did not want to wait after (the) succinct introduction you gave us, so I ordered in for my Kindle… you kept me up … Read more…
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