Negative is the New Positive: Part I

I knew if I just hung on long enough, the world would eventually come round. After all these years of being abused and shamed for my so-called negativity, it’s suddenly becoming chic.
The first time I recall being chided for negativity was by a friend on a snowy mountain in Vermont during a high school senior [...]

Baseball Bards

Baseball Bards
No, that is not a typo, it really does say Baseball Bards, not Cards.
Turns out I wasn’t so off the wall when I paired baseballers and poets as Uncommon Laborers on Labor Day. A few of these guys write poetry, and a few more of them read it.
Below, a few highlights from Bards of [...]

BookBuster Online

Hot Flash: I’ve just put up a new blogsite, BookBuster: Where Words are Served In Fine English. If that’s not self-evident, it’s my biz blog, the place where I’m selling myself my literary services.
Editing, Writing, Ghostwriting, Manuscript Evaluation, Tutoring and Personalized Erotica–available, as they’ve always been, only now I’m actually promoting.
Stop by and visit, even [...]

Labor Day

In honor of Labor Day, see my post from a previous year, Uncommon Laborers: Poets and Players.

Seven Years of Herotica 7

7 X 7:  Seven-Years of Herotica 7:

Writing, Publishing, Diversity and Political Correctness

Herotica 7, a collection of erotic fiction I edited in 2003, has suddenly and without fanfare finally been published. (The first print run of 2000 sold out, but a second printing is on the way.) Amazon shows it as a re-issue, [...]

Why Keep A Journal?

Indulge me as I play Professor for a Day.
The rewards of keeping a journal can be summed up in what I call the five R’s:
• Reinforcement
• Reflection
• Re-evaluation
• Renewal
• Review
Reinforcement: By writing down an incident, insight, or observation, you’re forced to recollect and describe things as accurately as possible. The act of writing functions [...]

A Sadistic Congressional Ritual

It’s painful, during the Sotomayor hearings, to watch the Republicans put her down, primarily for what they call being an “activist” judge. As far as I can tell, activism for a judge means allowing one’s feelings, opinions, and personal biases to influence one’s judicial opinions.
As a journalist I’ve heard this crap all my life—that we [...]

Bad Mothers Come Out

Hello Hooray I’m ready!
That’s a line from an old song by Meg Christian, one of the standard bearers of “wimmins music” in the early 70’s, in celebration of lesbians coming out everywhere. I invoke it now to hail the coming out of the bad mother, which–keeping fingers crossed–might at long last be happening .
I base [...]

Haiku Fever

Five Mornings With and Without the Moon in Santa Cruz
1.
Morning moon winks through the trees.
Hummingbirds disturbed
by smoky air abandon me.
2.
Silver ceiling sky covers
full moon hiding as
clouds mushroom far too quickly.
3.
Relentless gray clouds hide her
from view—a loss much
too soon. She rides with my dead.
4.
Morning moon shrouded in fog.
She hovers so high
you would think it was midnight.
5.
Gone [...]

Halfway to the Stars

You can buy a copy of my novel, Halfway to the Stars, at Scribd, for a mere 5 bucks. I’m trying this out. If anyone else has used Scribd I’m interested in hearing your stories.