With all the play Lonesome Dove is getting from social media, I’m questioning whether or not the hype is really sincere or it’s being driven by other motives. Or, maybe it’s just not for me.
Why I chose this book This is the first time I had read a book after meeting the author. In fact, I didn’t even know my neighbor, Angela Shaeffer, was writing a book until a few months ago. Meeting her has its […]
Front Cover: The worst luck If you’ve seen the cover, you already know the first metaphorical reference in a A Bad Hand. I’m sure many literary agents or publishers representing book club fiction or YA fiction authors have already noted that the […]
Meeting Weezer I didn’t get into Weezer until I saw their Buddy Holly video. It was much later than it should’ve been. I guess I wasn’t paying good enough attention. Hero was released during the COVID-19 pandemic as a thank you—a tribute […]
You might already know what a nazar looks like. Maybe you have seen one and didn’t even know it. A few years back, everyone from Gigi Hadid to Kim Kardashian and Megan Markle were photographed with nazar-themed jewelry and footwear. Maybe I […]
To celebrate our daughter getting her BFA in graphic design (I’m biased but she’s pretty talented), our family visited Europe. One of the highlights was a visit to Tate Modern. Among the many impressive works was an installation by the Brazilian artist, […]
TLDR: Listen to the Soundtrack First, A History Lesson It’s a typical Saturday night in 1990. My best friends and I are sitting on the round stools, headphones on, at the Blockbuster Music listening bar. We spent hours doing this. Even with […]
Sora Katsumi (or Katsumi Sora if you’re Japanese, where family name precedes one’s given name) is introduced a few chapters into the book as she meets the Yakuza boss, Hokusai, at a Tokyo coffee shop in the Shinagawa neighborhood. Sora is challenged […]
I haven’t missed a week where I didn’t write to my son an email. He’s working in Chicago right now. One of the features of my weekly email was “the weekly list”. On September 8, 2024, I sent him a list that […]
As the main protagonist in A Bad Hand, James Webb is an amalgam of at three different people. His passion for baseball and experience as a minor league bat boy was inspired by my son. Like James, nothing could get by that guy […]