text: photo – R. J. Nello
  I want to polish off Tomorrow The Grace once and for all. I'm trying to catch every "A" that should be "a," every "there" that should be "their," and every "," that should be "." So after this post, I'm not going to be on social media much for some days. But in social media terms, you guys here come first...
  Yesterday, I finally had enough. Three or four more appeared. I got so fed up with receiving Facebook email post notifications from a relation here in Britain that I went into the settings and turned them off. There is a general election scheduled for June 8, when the current prime minister's party may be returned …
  Continue reading ""But I can't 'unfriend' a cousin?!""
  Since about 1750 (after the Reformation, the Civil War, Cromwell, and battles over the succession to the throne), other than during WWII, Great Britain has generally been a pretty safe place. It had some "highwaymen" and street thuggery, but even that was patchy. (In 1800, it also had several dozen offenses for which hanging was …
  Continue reading "In Our Times"
  There comes that moment when you are finished writing for yourself, and you have to share the total of your effort. I've reached (and possibly even passed) that point now. Last night, Conventions went to she who has been a wonderful "critic" since I began this writing endeavor in 2013. So she has the "biggest" …
  Continue reading "The Young Man On "The Fringe""
  Sunday's post on loss and grief was quite serious, I know. I appreciate you having read it. As I have had some time to reflect on my feelings since posting it, interestingly I have found a bit of relief in my own words. And spring is upon us: Where would writers be without their families and …
  I lost an aunt a couple of weeks ago in New York. I've never mentioned her here. She was the widow of my other uncle - my mother's and my novelist uncle's younger brother. He died at 48 in early 1994. My aunt had been ill for a long time. I hadn't seen her in …
  Continue reading "When You Experience Grief…"
  Lizzy of Lizzy's Weekly Blogs wrote me an email yesterday asking if I would share some advice on "how to write a short story or a novel." I said I would give it a shot. What are some things I've learned in the five years I have been doing this? As I so far write …
  Continue reading "Lizzy Asks: How To Write A Novel?"
  Yesterday, I was having what I had thought was an innocuous FaceTime with my father. There was our usual current discussion of the weather in his northeast Pennsylvania, and any snow - including what is up at our house in the Catskills. There was also the required exchange about what the new U.S. president is …
  Continue reading "The Widower"
  We drove to England's "West Country" on Saturday: We went to visit long-time friends... We lived near Bath and Bristol in 2014-2015, and have long had friends in the vicinity, so that part of the country is familiar territory. Once there, we decided to have an English seaside February walk. The four of us (and …
  Continue reading "English Seaside In Winter"
  It's said writing is hard. And it is. Yet there should be some fun in it. I have learned after three novels, and continue to experience with this fourth, that characters can come to resonate with you almost in the same ways as do real people. As their personalities become clearer to you, you begin …
  Continue reading "While Storm Clouds Gather"
  As you may know by now, America had a big day on Tuesday. The result was not to everyone's liking, of course. We have by now seen a great deal of this sort of reaction, this one described by Chy, at The Lost Mango: Donald Trump is United State's newest president. A lot of my …
  Continue reading "If You Are Age "20"…"
  My 19 year old niece is at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She would like to write LETTERS! Younger people these days... I posted that to Instagram yesterday as I began it (and I have since moved on somewhat). Why? Because it dawned on me that it's hilarious. It's terrible - which as you …
  Continue reading ""Dear Charlotte""
  ...Well, fine. You don't like Amazon. But you take it out on readers? A top of the hour news update earlier on Classic FM shared with us that some author - I won't name him: I'm not interested in giving the person a "nod" even on my site here - is not releasing ALL of …
  Continue reading "As An Author, You Don't Like Amazon?…"
  Only minutes after I published yesterday's post, my shaken mother-in-law phoned us with sad family news. My wife's uncle-in-law, who was an inspiration for a gregarious, friendly Irish tourist in Rome in Distances, died at home in London early Sunday morning. He was 85. He had lived in England for over sixty years, and married …