Nicola Griffith's MENEWOOD

 

The second Hild book!

Out in paperback soon.

Happy Memory: Spring 2019

 

Cats in Station

 

The Travel-Edition

 of a favorite novel.

Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon.

Heroic fantasy of the old school new-schooled.

A worthy read.

I really did cut the book in Twain just to lighten my luggage. I was packing at least five other books for a two-week trip, right?

My Boy Captain

 

November 2022.

The Fisher-King and Vienna's Dark Brew

 

Tim Powers' The Drawing of the Dark.

1979 vintage.

An old favorite.

The Usual Suspects

 

Or, Identikit?

Dorothy Dunnett's King Hereafter

 

Minotaur: Old Clay

 

Tinker

 

Paddle-Happy

 

Bright morning, light wind, high tide, and a harbor seal or two out in the harbor.  

Conversations with the Classics and Beyo

 

Debt? Thank You, Dad!

 

Debts: 50 years ago?

When I was a middle-schooler, my father, who seemed to think fantasy and sword&sorcery and anything not sports were silly, picked up three tickets for the local high school's production of The Hobbit. He didn't tell me it was a musical, which I would have recoiled from. Instead, it was all a surprise as he, my mother, and I waited for the play to begin. I had a fine time, and I treasure the memory. More than anything, I reflect on how my dad noticed something I loved, countered his bias against the subject matter, countered my bias against a musical, and was willing to be there too. 

He came to most of my swim meets as well, bless him. The one parent cheering for our high school team. My friends appreciated that too. We lost more than we won.

I wasn't the star athlete my father wanted--that was G my middle brother and H my oldest brother--but he found ways to connect that I did not appreciate in the hurly burly of my teenage years. I am sorry for my blindness now.

Captain: One Year Ago

 

So far away now.

A bridge too far?

A reunion devotedly to be wished.

Tinker: Cat, Wizard, Dragon

 

Charybdis

 

Eddy, South of Van Damme

Mendocino, 2015 or 2017.

My best capture of a whirlpool in motion.

I should be more patient.

Rainy Morning Comforts

 

Dorothy Dunnett Day is Approaching

 

I picked up some decent Scotch for toasting, though not Dunnett 's favored Orkney Highland Park.

Totemic

 

Board Meeting: Homer's Odyssey

 

Blue Dream

 

Richardson Bay, 2020.

Paddle-happy.

Locust Street launch.

Comfort Reading

 

The End of the Road

 

The beginning of the bay.

Locust Street launch-spot.

Cats!

 

Romanesque

 

Groatsworth: Oatmeal Stout

 

Thursday afternoon break.

Armistice Brewery.

Rereading around.

Cognitive Hooks

 

Lady, Enlightened

 

Fresh Ink

 

Night Roll Call

 

The Best Writing?

 Truck ruminations:

Good writing? I can define or describe that. That's my day job.  The best writing? That is trickier.

The best writing carries me forward or backward, flood-like, whatever my inclinations.  The best writing surprises me in small or gigantic ways, but always in service to the story, whatever that means.  Awakening curiosity or empathy, perhaps forcing such: well, that's the spine, the spoor, the Cain's mark of the very best writing.

Long commute, you know?

New Reading: Lev Grossman's "The Bright Sword"

 

41 pages in, and I am hooked.

A Bit of Scotch and Scottish