Trust but Verify

In 2020, I am Eyeing The Russian In children’s games, we began by shouting, “Ready or not, here I come.” Times have changed, but the outcry is still appropriate for the new decade. Ready or not, it is here and I’m ready. Ready to create, to write, and to make the most of every day. It reminds me of a comment a critically ill man made when asked by a friend how he was doing. His answer was spot on. “I enjoyed my sandwich at lunch.” Such a little thing, but how accurate. It’s the little things that count. Another way of saying it is to enjoy the journey, not just wait to reach the final terminal of wherever we are going. Enjoy the journey! My journey as we start this new era is to make the most of each day as we construct my series of novels, the “Border Wars.” The series began with Color of the Prism , a fact-based novel set on the Arizona/Sonora border. Tarantino Productions purchased the movie rights but never put together the fifty-million budget to complete the film. Below i...

The Secret Recipe to Creating a Great Book Cooking and writing have much in common—more than you might think. Take a moment to think back to some special place you went for dinner. Better yet, think of all those meals your mom prepared for your dinner. At some point ahead of time, be it an hour or even days earlier, she had to make a decision on what she would fix, how much, and how many people would be there to eat. Would it be the immediate family, or would there be a friend or two? Or maybe even some relatives from out-of-town. Her decision would first focus on her audience (who she would be feeding), what they would like, the cost of buying the main course and the side dishes to go with it, what her preparation time would be, and did she really want to do it or not? Was she ready to commit? Once her decisions were made, off she would go to the store to make her purchases, get home and schedule what went on the stove or in the oven, prepare her pots and pans, prep...

The Silver Lining My writing history began with a silver lining in a very large, dark cloud. I was a young child living with my parents and brothers and sister in Kansas City, Missouri. I was a sickly little guy. Even in second grade I was hardly bigger that a #2 lead pencil. I suffered severely with asthma, almost to the point of death. The summers with their heat, humidity, and heavy pollen counts kept me housebound, unable to run outside with my siblings and neighbor kids. Winter was no better. The wet, cold weather was the wedge that kept me confined to the house. There was no escape—summer or winter. Finally, my life was forever changed when two nuns showed up at my front door to offer a solution, and quite possibly save my life. This solution would take me several states away from my family to live in the arid pollen-free state of Arizona in an orphanage.   Bye, Mama I've written a short piece that will give you a snapshot of the heart breaking ...