History and magic are a powerful combination. Time travel can be a form of magical realism fiction, depending on the writer’s approach. In a magical realism treatment, you’re in one world and then another opens around you like a blossom. In my magical realism style of time travel, there are laws to the ability to move through time, but the focus isn’t on the mechanisms (science fiction style), nor on characters living in a different…
Our Broken World People talk a lot these days about the divisions in our country and our world. With good reason, they lament the brokenness we see among a large swath of the population, and the despair many feel that the “normal” world will never be regained. I have a different view. I come at this chaos with the idea that we are making a hairpin turn in civilization, and won’t be returning to “normal”.…
Children Standing Together as One Family I’m always moved to see adults joining together from many countries to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders. And when I see children moved by the plight of other children, it’s especially touching. They’re not only sympathizing, they’re taking action! This group of children got together to do something tangible to help Ukrainian kids. They raised funds with handmade goods and baked treats, sending tthe proceeds to…
Sometimes speaking needs to be be done both plainly and in poetry. The essayist’s keyboard writes journalistically, but a poet’s pen tends to curve. It speaks truth aslant of literal meaning. It breaks into lines, cadges meaning from comparisons, and is known to divert utterance with entertaining rhythm or rhyme. I’m thinking about saying a thing with curves, speaking plainly in poetry. Uttering my truth in metaphor while making its essentials clear as glass. To…
Living a Creative Life Can Be Addictive It seems that I’m hooked on living a creative life. I always return to writing after a catastrophe or crisis. I return to it when I’m happy and fulfilled. When I’m bored or confused. It’s like home plate. After my younger brother died, I stayed in bed for two weeks and wrote. It was terrible and unexpected. He died of cancer after a year-long battled that gave him…
In this post, I’m going to rate several time travel novels, using my own I-Wish-I’d-Written-It test. Time travel novels go in two directions. Either the plot is a thriller-style story and takes a scientific approach to time’s paradoxes, or it immerses the reader as a tourist in a past era. Most often, time travel books have a romance. I’m not fascinated by time machines or historical paradoxes, so my stories go the romance and adventure…
Why Did I Do It? Starting a new novel was a accident. Why did I begin to haul another book out of midair almost the minute I’d sent this one to be published? There was a whiteboard in my brain, erased and swoops like the water color clouds making upside down commas on the sky today. I was empty of story, the characters are gone to their own lives and readers minds. No longer my…
Who was Jane Austen? I want to write about Jane Austen to plumb the depths of the enigma. The famous author was full of contradictions. Supposedly, she was quiet and obedient, a devout lady of her time, but she longed for the adventure her brothers enjoyed. She was a sarcastic cynic about human relationships who penned romantic comedies that still make our hearts throb. Jane was forbidden as a woman to publish under her own…
The Appeal of Magic & Reading Recommendations The appeal of magical realism fiction — the extraordinary appearing within the everyday — let us escape the ordinary, feel powerful, and believe in dimensions beyond what we can see. Real life has its magical moments, but plunging into a magical novel can sustain heightened feelings. Reading magical realism fiction can allow you to feel love, do something brave, or be wildly generous. Be bigger than your ordinary…