tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30439079268482667882009-10-27T18:39:22.360-07:00Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.comBlogger183125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-57068550665170450592009-10-27T18:33:00.001-07:002009-10-27T18:39:22.384-07:00

By this time I've made no less than 10 trips into every Books a Million, Borders, and Barnes & Noble I've passed within 5 miles of since late August in search of Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash. It was recently released in paperback, but I never found it in hard back in any of the bookstores. I guess I'll just have to break down and order it from Amazon.com.

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-30688143977819268312009-10-16T19:19:00.001-07:002009-10-16T19:27:43.274-07:00

We ate at Doc Ford's on Sanibel during a recent visit. The seafood was very good. I also purchased Sanibel Flats during the visit. Doc Ford is a re-occuring character in many of White's novels.We visited a local book store and several other local eateries. Everyone was eager to talk about the series of Doc Ford novels anytime we asked about it. It appears Mr. White aka Randy Stryker is a well

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-52363636491302039412009-08-10T15:56:00.000-07:002009-08-15T12:58:26.283-07:00

I think I naturally gravitate toward telling instead of showing, but I don't think that's how it's supposed to work. Here's a passage I've been working on that ended up "telling" too much.Since returning from Iraq, U.S. Army Captain Riley Burke struggled to sleep through the night. He’d been diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome and could no longer pursue an Army career. At first, Riley

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-33352517581858449432009-08-09T18:32:00.000-07:002009-10-27T18:33:15.178-07:00

I listen to Michele Norris, award winning radio host of NPR's All Things Considered, on my drive home from work almost everyday. (She also appears with George Stephanopoulos occasionally on his Sunday news maganize program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.)According to the St. Petersburg Times, Ms. Norris has placed Mudbound by Hillary Jordan and Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash on her reading

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-81778119108186027952009-08-08T11:36:00.001-07:002009-08-08T12:05:58.610-07:00

Rachelle Gardner's blog post "How Do You Learn to Write?" is worth reading and re-reading each time you get a little down in the dumps about your writing or lack of writing success.A quote from Rachelle's post:I think the answer is that you have to be scrappy, and you have to learn any which way you can. You piece it together. You take the lessons where you can find them. If you're a writer, or

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-11035368732718590702009-08-07T16:17:00.000-07:002009-08-07T16:20:24.790-07:00

ABC News featured a story tonight about Carly Fleishmann, an autistic teenager with a gift for writing. I find it truly remarkable that writing has offered her such valuable therapy. Visit her blog or follow Carly on Twitter.

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-50789352426217306342009-08-07T08:04:00.000-07:002009-08-09T05:10:21.436-07:00

I did some more work on a piece of writing a posted a few days ago titled Daybreak. I'm not normally a fan of the Prologue, but most novels published in the past few years begin with one. Here's a fourth (fifth) attempt:Brothers Siegfried and Glen Salinger left home on foot two hours before daybreak on the third Saturday of July, 1936. Taking a few items they could carry in their nap sacks and

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-2865155894196486922009-07-21T16:59:00.000-07:002009-07-21T17:04:17.110-07:00

I found a very creative blog post today titled "How to Write a Novel While Watching TV". The article is posted on Jerry Kolber's writing blog. I'm not sure it would actually work, but I'll admit that I've tried to write while watching TV many times and failed miserably. At least now I know what I'm doing wrong - I need to watch more TV and write for shorter periods (only during commercials).

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-21190654770501227352009-07-18T18:33:00.000-07:002009-07-18T19:29:29.047-07:00

Brothers Sigfreid and Glen Sallinger left home two hours before daybreak on Saturday, July 26, 1932 and headed east toward Kansas City.Availability of affordable land lured their German grandfather to Liberal, Kansas forty years earlier. You could look in four directions and see nothing for miles and miles. No cities. No houses. No people. The land was good for growing wheat and corn. But, with

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-28900071757475280702009-07-18T12:41:00.000-07:002009-07-18T13:01:22.524-07:00

I am currently reading Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sky, the novel many credit for starting the western novel genre. Published in 1913, it was Grey's first major novel and remains one of the most popular. Since the original printing, it's never been out of print.I've enjoyed the first four chapters, although the writing style is cumbersome and overly descriptive at times. However, on the

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-27165063346064977962009-07-05T06:09:00.000-07:002009-07-05T07:01:03.893-07:00

While on a recent vacation, I visited Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo, Texas and took this picture. Formed by water erosion of the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, the canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States.In the gift shop, I met Gerald McCathern, an author who resides in nearby Hereford, Texas. He's written several books about the rise of Texas cattle ranching

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-24547722299562537392009-07-03T19:12:00.001-07:002009-07-05T05:59:59.015-07:00

USA Today recently featured an article celebrating John Grisham's twentieth year writing legal thrillers. The Firm, Pelican Brief, and A Time to Kill are 3 of my all time favorite movies.I found an insightful interview Grisham granted to Bill Moyer's in 2008 that provides an insight into his thought process.

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-48431066197191309832009-06-06T09:29:00.001-07:002009-07-05T06:09:38.748-07:00

The last day of grade school was generally around May 15th and we returned to school the day after Labor Day each year. From May 16th until Labor Day, we rarely wore shoes during the daytime unless we were working with hoes or rakes in the garden, feeding the livestock, or going into town for some reason.Bare feet in the summertime meant freedom. Freedom from the hour long bus ride to school,

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-45922735512270205712009-06-05T16:49:00.000-07:002009-06-05T17:24:50.951-07:00

When I was six or seven my grandmother gave me a book by Mel Bay titled something to the effect of Learn to Play the Guitar. My dad had an inexpensive guitar and let me strum it sometimes. I sat down and tried to duplicate the chords and techniques Mr. Bay demonstrated in the book. I spent most of the summer trying, but I did not learn to play the guitar that year. Or the next one either. But, I

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-73811767298348805292009-06-04T18:28:00.000-07:002009-07-05T06:08:41.180-07:00

I recently read an entry on another blog about an adult's struggles with returning to college after several years in the work force. She has been laid off from her "career" job and is now taking Algebra I, which is a prerequisite for her new career (hopefully).I know exactly how she feels, but for me it was Algebra II. I made B's and A's in Algebra I, but for whatever reason couldn't "get" the

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-79808374764221195792009-06-03T17:04:00.000-07:002009-06-04T18:25:08.960-07:00

When we were kids, my mom let us eat popcorn on Saturday nights. The four of us usually were given a choice between a small amount of ice cream in a tiny bowl, or all the popcorn we could eat. Popcorn won almost every time. It was cheap, easy, and quick to fix. A little oil in a medium sized skillet and a ½ cup of popcorn and 3 minutes later you had a slice of buttery heaven.We later graduated to

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-45526814260870063902009-06-01T18:22:00.000-07:002009-06-01T19:02:58.535-07:00

I used to collect bottle caps. At eight or nine years old, it was a quest to collect as many as possible and as fast as possible. In our house, it was Pepsi's. At grandma's you got RC Cola and Dr. Pepper. I don't remember too many Coca-Cola bottle caps. Come to think of it, where I grew up, no one really drank Coca-Cola's (and they still don't).I'm not sure I remember the exact number, but it was

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-83759058634295254472009-06-01T16:52:00.000-07:002009-06-04T18:27:47.190-07:00

I don't remember a lot of my childhood before the age of three, but a few things do stand out in my mind starting a few years later.My finger was smashed by some neighborhood kids while playing on a pile of concrete blocks. A few hours and a short doctor's visit later, I was diagnosed with a broken finger. It's still crooked.My favorite dog named Pepe died when I was five years old. I'm told the

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-17303361812143173742009-05-25T15:00:00.000-07:002009-05-26T15:34:20.548-07:00

My parents, grandparents, and all who came before them were farmers. They grew gardens to put food on the table and raised cows, pigs, acres of corn, soybeans, milo, and wheat to put money in their pockets.At five years old, my dad moved our family into a mobile home situated in the middle of a cow pasture. There were livestock, dogs, cats, trucks, trailers, and tractors. And to accompany it all…

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-853971009990947992009-04-19T04:30:00.000-07:002009-04-19T04:36:00.482-07:00

I saw the T-Birds while attending Westminster College in the 80's. It's funny, I appreciate them much more 24 years later.

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-12734105160281633872009-04-19T04:23:00.001-07:002009-04-19T04:25:22.951-07:00

Wrong. Take a look at this dose of reality from someone who had a book on the New York Times list last year.

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-32339198675734508052009-04-06T07:38:00.000-07:002009-06-06T07:41:18.743-07:00

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-30451799522121871162009-03-28T17:04:00.000-07:002009-03-28T17:22:59.421-07:00

I read the first six chapters of Doug Worgul's bbq novel today. It's put me in the mood for some harmonica music. Here's one of the best harmonica players on YouTube.com - Lee Sankey. Learn more about this artist at LeeSankey.com. I love his rendition of Monkey Lips.

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3043907926848266788.post-8787771094039381022009-03-22T13:24:00.000-07:002009-03-28T17:36:32.960-07:00

I attended a presentation by Debora Coty, author of The Distant Shore, Billowing Sails, Mom Needs Chocolate, and others. She shared her experiences going from occupational therapist and mother to a author with six books in print six years later.It was an eye opening session that delved into a variety of writing topics from getting started in a writing a career with magazine articles, how to write

Brianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12990645989912766349bpearcy10@yahoo.com1