Chuck Palahniuk's new book, Consider This: Moments In My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different (out now) is largely a writer's guide for beginning fiction authors. There's a nuts and bolts review of fundamental story components like the passage of time, the establishment of authority, clear and effective dialogue, and the creation and maintenance of tension. That primer is paired with guidance about how to use those and other building blocks to make your writing more powerful. It's a MFA-quality "intro to writing" course at an affordable price. The information is undoubtedly useful for professional writers. However, the book... Read more →

The last few weeks have been somewhat challenging. It's probably a combination of mixed feelings about the holidays and the fact that it gets dark at 4:00 in the afternoon, because that's just a drag. As a result, my daily thoughts seemed to be steadily narrowing. It's not just that I couldn't think outside of the box. I was only staring at the center of the box, which is no fun. Having had enough of that restriction, I took a trip to the bookstore hoping to find something that might help me shake things up like a snow globe. The... Read more →

Demi Moore began her career as a model. She then started her climb to fame as an actress in the early 1980's with a role on the soap opera General Hospital. She eventually came to be known as part of the "Brat Pack," a group of young actors and actresses who were the "it" kids at the time and appeared in a number of movies together, including St. Elmo's Fire. The group also included stars like Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Emilio Estevez (who was engaged to Moore at one point.) From there, the actress had... Read more →

Journalist Ronan Farrow has been in the headlines for the last few years, due to his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning expose on disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's long history of sexual assault and harassment. It was a tale known for decades by many in the entertainment industry, but his victims and others with knowledge of his behavior were afraid to speak publicly because of fear of retribution. Farrow was able to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, but he ran into unexpected resistance from his bosses at NBC. The network killed the piece and then eventually fired Farrow.... Read more →

Journalist/filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas was 12 years old when his mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California, where she would hopefully join him soon thereafter. Adjusting to life in the United States was enough of a challenge by itself, but the stakes became much higher when Vargas discovered, while applying for a driver's license at age 16, that he was an undocumented immigrant. That revelation sent Vargas on a path where he was forced to hide basic elements of himself from almost everyone around him while trying to figure out where he existed in... Read more →

Hi everyone, Welcome back! How are you? Hope you're able to enjoy the long weekend. I had a pretty productive day on Sunday, especially considering how badly I slept. Got some exercise, did some errands, and then spent most of the afternoon/early evening in the garden alternating between weeding and reading. It was everything I could ask for out of the day, really. However, my back issues flared up again at the end of the night, and long story short, I was up at 4:45 this morning. I let BDH and Little Buddha sleep until the alarm went off, though.... Read more →

Don't know about you, but the new season of Doctor Who is starting to feel like it will never arrive. Even if we get a Christmas or New Year's special first, that's still months away. What's a fan to do? Fortunately, there's a new Doctor Who graphic novel to check out: Doctor Who The Thirteenth Doctor Volume 2 just hit the stands, so at least we can read about the Doctor's latest adventures with Graham, Yaz, and Rian. This collection picks up a few weeks after Volume 1, where the Doctor and fam helped rescue a pair of scientists. #13... Read more →

As is true for so many fans of the show, Tom Baker was our introduction to Doctor Who. The eccentric man with the booming voice, amazing curls, and trademark scarf provided the template for how we saw the Doctor. To some extent, everyone who came after has been measured against the 4th Doctor. We would sit mesmerized in front of the television for each of his adventures, and now some almost 40 years since he left the show, he's done it to us again. This time, wee were glued to the new book: Doctor Who: Scratchman. The story was originally... Read more →

I don't feel like I discovered Doctor Jennifer Ashton's new book, Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort & Community, by accident. Our story starts with the fact that the 5 1/2 year anniversary of my mom's suicide is coming up in a few weeks, so that was already on my mind. I made plans to go to a 3:15 movie earlier this week, and I thought I'd pass some time by stopping first at the bookstore. It wasn't my usual store, and I found myself walking walking straight to the table that featured the book. That seemed like interesting timing.... Read more →

If you want to take a break from the nonstop coverage of all of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Joe Biden, let us recommend a crime thriller that stars...Joe Biden. New York Times best-selling author Andrew Shaffer made a splash last summer with Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery. It was a fun read that tapped into the famous Barack Obama - Joe Biden "bromance" and hearkened back to a more nostalgic time when the White House occupant wasn't being accused of treason, sexual assault, and other criminal activity on a seemingly daily basis. Shaffer is back, and... Read more →