Those of you who know me well knew that this had to come. It had to happen. I can only go so long without talking about it. I'm going to talk about Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. More specifically, I'm going to talk about Edward Rochester. This isn't a standard book review. I haven't even read … Continue reading The Absolute Worst →

I haven't posted in a while. Sorry. I know I talk about being a writer. I know I talk about writing. I know I've talked about how you need to write and read and write and write more and no matter what you do, keep writing. I know I've talked about how, when you don't … Continue reading Pies, and the Fingers We Stick in Them →

Like the people of the world, all punctuation marks are created equal. Like your elders and Kit-Kats, all should be respected. (Don't be the monstrosity who bites into the Kit-Kat without breaking it apart first, you hear?) Some, however, will just never get the respect they deserve. Periods are simple enough. Anyone with a first … Continue reading Crimes Against Grammar: The Poor, Poor Apostrophe →

It's a strange but indisputable fact of life that grumpy old men make excellent fictional characters. Why do you think so many people love Up? If these grumpy old men are soft inside but in denial about it, that's even better. Guess what this story is about? This is another short story that I wrote for … Continue reading Short Story Saturday: Greenhaven →

Go to Barnes and Noble--the one in the Avenue in Murfreesboro. Walk around a bit. Tell me what you see. Chances are, everything's pretty normal. You've got mothers and grandmothers in the cookbook section looking at Paula Deen's books. There are a dozen hipsters sipping lattes in the café. All sorts of people are milling … Continue reading The Bookstore: A Tradition →

If you've gotten tired of these book reviews, don't worry: I'm reading Anna Karenina right now, and if you don't know this already, it's roughly forever-long. So it will be a while before I finish it. Sense and Sensibility is the third Austen book I've read (the second one I've read this year). The other two … Continue reading Book Review: Sense and Sensibility →

So . . . I write poetry. Sometimes. Writing poetry is interesting--I never want to do it. Recently, I've been doing it for school. I've been doing it because I have to. I never exactly want to sit myself down and write a poem. There are at least a dozen other things I'd rather do … Continue reading A Little Bit of Poetry →

Parentheses are a beautiful thing. I love them. They're a wonderful tool for writing--they're useful and convenient and fun. You can say anything you want in parentheses. You can even stack them. For instance, if I decide to write in parentheses (and I often do) but I have a parenthetical thought to add inside those … Continue reading Crimes Against Grammar: The Missing Parenthesis →

I just recently read Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, and, as far as I can tell, it has one unforgivable flaw--it just isn't as good as the movie based on it. I can't exactly bring myself to talk only of the book without mentioning the movie, but since this is a book … Continue reading Book Review: Far from the Madding Crowd →

This is a picture of my bookshelf taken with a bad camera in poor lighting. You're welcome. Someday I would like to fill it up with classics, all of them worn and annotated, but for right now, this is it: some self-help books, a devotional, a couple books in Latin that I probably won't ever … Continue reading My Dictionaries →