When I am reviewing a book, it is almost always after the fact. I don’t sit down to review a book, and I don’t review every book I read. I just read and sometimes write a review. Somehow this time I knew when I picked this one up, within the first 50 pages, that I was going to be reviewing it. Maybe because I sat down with my editor’s hat on too soon after other writing-related work, but I could see the forest through the trees on Rise of Mages, and well... I just don’t care.

You are going to have a last flower. You are going to walk into your garden one day, and that day will be the last day something new blooms before winter overtakes you (at least where I live!). It will be stark, beautiful, and a reminder of the things that have bloomed before.   My Last Flower Then you will walk through your garden and see the flowers that didn’t finish. They almost bloomed, but in the lateness of the season they were halted and they will be only that: buds t

I cannot recall what I was listening to, or if it was reading that discussed the asteroid conundrum. Here is the question at hand: You are an artist of some kind, a painter, sculptor, writer, musician, and you have been working for years of your life to become gifted at what you do. You learn that the world is going to end in 30 days, and all human life and everything we have ever created is going to be destroyed. Humanity will never rise again, and all works of humanity will

Winding down doesn’t mean done. I am always a little sad at the end of every gardening year because I have to wait from about November 15th to about April 15th before I see signs of life in the garden again. Everything goes to sleep, folds up on itself, and waits. I won’t lie. I am envious of those who live in warmer climate zones sometimes and grow an extra two months or more. Fall in the damp garden I have tasks to do in the yard, like moving stones about, mulching, cutting

I’m going to give away a spoiler: in the most amazing story I have ever seen, heard, or read, the hero dies in the end. They may fight...

The Old Ball and Chain... My wife won’t let me get fat. Within limits. I am very grateful she won’t. I won’t let her be sedentary, though...

On Thursday, I am picking up a cake for a dead man. I do not write much in the way of true details about my personal life on this site....

Trust me, stay for the result of this... In the last thirty minutes the following things have happened and the following thoughts have...

Not this kind of acting out... I was recently reading Aristotle's Poetics . It is the earliest surviving work of Greek dramatic theory...

So many people seem to be ashamed of themselves. There are things to be ashamed of, but people are ashamed of the wrong things. I’m not...

It makes me angry when otherwise amazing people find excuses to fail. Plenty has been written about what I am about to say, and none of...

Every day, remind yourself you can quit tomorrow. But not today. You can put it off as many times as you like, but you can only actually...

In a garden almost nothing is forever. Trees can be moved even when they are towering fifty-foot specimens. Shrubs can be split and...

If you sit down to read, you are trusting the author on many levels. If you have read them before you are trusting their tone and...

I am part of an editing and writing group, as everyone who wants to take writing seriously should be. As part of that, every two weeks we...

I am a decade late to the party, but I can’t say nothing about my most recent read, Children of Time , by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Published...

I watch a show from time to time called Gardeners’ World . One of the gardens you see frequently belongs to the host, and is a place...

I have been sitting on some book reviews for the last couple of months that I want to start putting out into the world. My luck has...

Weeds are part of every garden, every garden bed, hiding beneath every plant, growing alongside them, or even towering over them. A weed...

I have been thinking a lot about the future of writing. I may have more to say on this topic but for right now I want to talk about the...