What’s So Funny? (Part One)

What’s So Funny? (Part One)

  When writing of times long past, I always wonder what people found funny. What insults did they use and what invective? What jokes did they tell in taverns and saloons? After finishing a novel set in one era I shift the source materials to another room to make...
My Little Black Book

My Little Black Book

                                                                                  My Address Book Is Where I Find Myself                                                                  Here’s how out of touch I am with modern technology: A friend called to ask...
the Tuesday Club

the Tuesday Club

Loquacious Scribble and the Tuesday Club “Oh, we can make liquor to sweeten our lips Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut tree chips.” (Vexed and Troubled Englishmen: 1590-1642 by Carl Bridenbaugh)             The vexed and troubled English colonists in 17th-century...
On the Road Again

On the Road Again

                                                                               On the Road Again          The human itch to hit the road goes way back.  Much has been written about journeys, starting with the epic poem, the Odyssey. Attributed to the Greek poet Homer,...
Connecting the Thoughts

Connecting the Thoughts

            Now and then someone will ask where I get my ideas.  I resist the temptation to give Isaac Asimov’s answer: “A post office box in Cleveland.”  I skip from one era, event, person, or country to another for my novels, so curiosity about what inspires them is...
Shock and Ew-w-w-w

Shock and Ew-w-w-w

In 1979,  Ballantine Books gave me a contract to write a novel about the Comanches, a culture and tradition completely unknown to this Anglo-American East Coast native.  That first venture into historical research raised an unexpected question.  In 1836 what made the...

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