Writing Tools Roy Peter Clark In his Introduction to  Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer ,  Roy Peter Clark  talks down the whole idea of the "writer's struggle." He thinks writing should be easy and fun, and writer's block a thing that should not happen. OK, that works for me. I'm an old fart -- I've been reading all my life and writing most of it. I was a scientist, and let me tell you, an academic scientist does a LOT of writing. I have never had a serious problem with writer's block. It's not that it never happens, but I have found strategies to get out of it or bypass it, and they work. To my surprise, Part Four, "Useful Habits," of  Writing Tools  was, in large part, a list of exactly those strategies of mine. That was what I found over and over:  Clark  gives good advice that I don't need, because I already do it. This even turns out to be true of advice I thought I wasn't following. For instance,  Clark ...

Poems of the Night Jorge Luis Borges "Now he is a handful of dust and glory." That is the final line of the final poem of this Penguin Classics selection of poems by  Jorge Luis Borges , "Sepulchral Inscription," of  Poems of the Night , as translated by Robert Fitzgerald. (The original Spanish is the headline of this review.) It serves as an epitaph for  Borges  himself. I have a new favorite poet. Here is how one of his most famous poems, "Insomnio," begins De fierro, de encorvados tirantes de enorme fierro tiene que ser la noche, para que no la revienten y la desfonden las muchas cosas que mis abarrotados ojos han visto, las duras cosas que insoportablemente la pueblan.* It is, I think, very characteristic of  Borges .  If you think about it, it is hard to understand. What does it mean to say, "The night must be made of iron"? And yet, if I DON'T think about it, it is completely clear. When I read, "De fierro tiene que ser la noche,...

Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity Elizabeth C. Bunce At the end of  Elizabeth C. Bunce 's  In Myrtle Peril  Myrtle (snooping in his desk) discovered hints that her father, Arthur Hardcastle, had secret plans that involved jewelry and boarding schools. In book 5,  Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity , we find out almost immediately what those plans were. You've probably already figured it out.  Yes, Myrtle's father is finally going to ask Miss Judson to be his wife. The real action, however, kicks off when Miss Judson receives a thick letter telling her that she has inherited an estate in Scotland from a great-uncle she has never even heard of. Well, you know Miss Judson, so you know that she immediately decides to go there herself, to see this estate and decide what to do about it. She takes Myrtle along, of course, and (this was a bit of a surprise) also Cook. Arthur Hardcastle, having obligations, is not immediately free to accompany them. The estate is located on the...

Marked in Flesh Anne Bishop ** spoiler alert **  I've marked this review of  Marked in Flesh , book 4 of  Anne Bishop 's the  Others  series, a spoiler, but I don't think it'll be much of a spoiler to anyone who's read the previous three books. By the end of book 3,  Vision in Silver , it was pretty obvious that war was coming. The Humans First and Last (HFL) movement was stirring up all the trouble they could on Thaisia (North America) and Cel-Romano (Europe). They have built airplanes and big guns and have made it clear that they think it is the destiny and right of humans to rule Namid. That war is what happens in  Marked in Flesh . It's a good story, with Meg and her  cassandra sangue  friends Jean and Hope foreshadowing the disasters to come and the politicking within Lakeside and more broadly across the continent. I have one complaint, though. The bad guys are seriously underpowered. It's been obvious from the start that (1) The HFL mov...

Black Betty Walter Mosley OK. I give up. I have now read four of  Walter Mosley 's  Easy Rawlins  mystery series. I do not look forward to the next with eagerness. In fact, I think of it yet another chore to be gotten through. And with each one I read, it turns out, indeed, to be a chore. The problem is that they're just too much hard work to read. Now, I am willing to work hard on a novel, if the reward justifies it. These do not. They are not even slightly entertaining. I don't really care about Easy or what happens to him next. (I do rather care about his best friend Mouse, who is overall a far more vivid presence than Easy.) Now, I DO get it. The  Easy Rawlins  novels show what life was like for black folks in mid-20th century Los Angeles -- GRIM. I feel like I've gotten the message as well as I'm gonna get it. Enough. I won't read any more  Easy Rawlins  novels. Black Betty  on Amazon Goodreads review  

Flashman: A novel George MacDonald Fraser No less an author than  P.G. Wodehouse  blurbed  George MacDonald Fraser 's  Flashman . This quote can be found on the cover of one edition, "If ever there was a time when I felt that watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet-stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman." While acknowledging  Wodehouse 's sneaky hedging ("If ever"), we can also acknowledge that this is a strong endorsement. And it is deserved. Harry Flashman, the protagonist (I will not say "hero") of the  Flashman Papers , is, to my experience, unique in all of fiction. He describes himself as "a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward—and, oh yes, a toady" -- and that description is accurate. He is an utterly despicable guy. Now, you're probably thinking, "This is not unusual -- I can think of dozens of literary antiheroes who match this description." And of course you're right. But what all these antiheroes...

In Myrtle Peril Elizabeth C. Bunce In the title of  Elizabeth C. Bunce 's  In Myrtle Peril , we are branching out a bit. Instead of the assonance of "Myrtle" and "murder," here we are here exploiting the similar sounds of "Myrtle" and "mortal, which works even better than "murder." Plotwise, there are two things going on here. First, Myrtle's father Arthur has tonsillitis. He's reluctant to go to the hospital to be treated, which was a far more reasonable attitude towards medicine in 1894 than it is in 2025. However, general anesthesia with ether is now a possibility. Even more important, the germ theory of disease has arrived on the scene, and  Joseph Lister  has been advocating antiseptic surgery. So, although tonsillectomy is dangerous and unpleasant, it is not the horror it was even a few years earlier. The second thing going on is the revival of an old insurance case, having to do with the loss at sea of the  Persephone . Se...

Spy x Family, Vol 1 Tatsuya Endo (Story & Art), Casey Loe (Translator), Rina Mapa (Touch-Up Art & Lettering), Jimmy Presler (Design) In my quest to learn to read Japanese, I have a routine of reading through a Japanese work at the rate of five new words every two days. I have almost finished reading  The Little Prince (Japanese Edition)  and feel I should move on to books originally written in Japanese.  Tatsuya Endo 's  Spy x Family  manga series seemed like it would be fun, so I'm getting ready to start that. I have laid hands on the first three volumes in Japanese (not a trivial problem for one living in Canada). Because I don't want to sacrifice my enjoyment to my poor Japanese comprehension, I bought the English translation of  Vol. 1  and read it. Here's the premise. 黄昏 (translated "Twilight") is a an accomplished spy for the small country Westalis, a master of disguise. His mission is to infiltrate the elite Eden Academy in order to spy ...

Vision in Silver Anne Bishop Vision in Silver  is the third novel in  Anne Bishop 's  The Others  urban fantasy series. The second novel,  Murder of Crows , ended with the Others, in a shock and awe campaign, raiding the compounds that kept  cassandra sangue  and sold their prophecies for enormous profit. It now transpires that  cassandra sangue  are psychologically fragile. The folks with whom they've been placed (some are  terra indigene  and some are allied humans) are struggling to keep the girls alive and healthy. The problem is exacerbated by the Humans First and Last movement, which is successfully exploiting it for propaganda against the Others. Nicholas Scratch, a pseudonymous demagogue from Cel-Romano, claims that the Others kidnapped vulnerable human girls from facilities where they had been cared for, and are now failing to take care of them. In fact, he is paving the way for a war of the humans of Cel-Romano against the...

White Butterfly Walter Mosley White Butterfly  is the third novel in  Walter Mosley 's classic  Easy Rawlins  mystery series. While the first two,  Devil in a Blue Dress  and  A Red Death  are brilliant expositions of life for a black man in 1950s Los Angeles, they are, to be completely frank, not great story-telling. (It should go without saying that I'm expressing personal opinions, and that yours may differ. It  should  go without saying, but it  doesn't  always, so there, I just said it.) There's just too much going on, too many characters. As mysteries, they failed for me, because I could barely follow the story. White Butterfly  is better. The story was engaging, comparatively straightforward, and there was even a good plot twist near the end that took me by surprise. I've been reading fiction for 65 years, so a plot twist that takes me by surprise is an unusual achievement. As detective fiction,  Easy Rawlins ...

Cold-Blooded Myrtle Elizabeth C. Bunce The title of the third  Mrytle HardCastle  mystery is, as usual, a pun exploiting the assonance of Myrtle and murder. (This HAS to be the reason  Elizabeth C. Bunce  chose the name Myrtle, right?) This one is odd, though, because "cold-blooded" is the one thing that our Myrtle is NOT! Our Myrtle is keen as a hound on a scent. She's a brilliant, nosy kid who can't be persuaded, ever, to mind her own business. She is not put off by blood and poison and viscera, which sounds like she might be cold-blooded, except that she's not -- she's positively enthusiastic about murder, even ghoulish. And we love it! Or at least, I do. For  Cold-Blooded Myrtle , we don't take any trips or go anywhere exotic. The action takes place entirely in Myrtle's home town of Swinburne and the neighboring Schofield College. Schofield College, it turns out, is where Myrtle's mother studied many years ago, before Myrtle herself was thought...

The Lie T.C. Boyle ** spoiler alert **  Two days ago I started a local community college course called "Writing Short Stories". As an example the first week's material had a video of author  T. Coraghessan Boyle  reading his story  The Lie  aloud. The story in summary is that the protagonist (certainly not a hero), who is a lazy guy, doesn't want to go to work one morning, so he calls his boss and tells him a really stupid lie. The next day he skips work again and he doubles down on the lie. Eventually he gets caught by his wife. There are a lot of stories of stupid people acting stupid. There are so many that I have to assume some people like these stories. I am not one of them. The Lie  on Amazon Goodreads review  

Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett Witches Abroad  is the twelfth novel in  Terry Pratchett 's  Discworld  series, and the third in the  Witches  subseries, after  Equal Rites  and  Wyrd Sisters , which introduced Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and the unfortunate Magrat Garlick. They are the central figures of  Witches Abroad , but the first three witches we meet are not Magrat, Granny, and Nanny. One of these first three is Desiderata Hollow, who is about to die. but has unfinished business left. She needs to get Magrat, Granny, and Nanny to take care of it, so she uses headology. Got to be all three. And that ain’t easy, with people like them. Got to use headology. Got to make ’em send ’emselves. Tell Esme Weatherwax she’s got to go somewhere and she won’t go out of contrariness, so tell her she’s not to go and she’ll run there over broken glass. "There" is the distant city of Genua, where the third of the first three witches has cast hers...

Murder of Crows Anne Bishop Murder of Crows , the second novel in  Anne Bishop 's  The Others  series, begins with Meg kicking Simon out of her bed. That doesn't mean what you probably think it means. Simon wakes Meg up from a scary dream, and in her sudden fright, she literally kicks him. But what was Simon doing in Meg's bed? He was sleeping. Yes, Simon and Meg are sleeping with each other. But that, while literally true, doesn't mean what the phrase usually means. Near the end of  Written in Red , Meg was attacked by a team of kidnappers/murderers and almost killed. In  Murder of Crows  she's still working through some post-traumatic stress. Having a warm, friendly, scary-safe wolf in bed with her makes it easier for her to sleep. Simon and Meg are not romantically involved with each other, but their relationship was an important plot thread of  Written in Red , continues to be important in  Murder of Crows , and, I confidently predict, will be...

Ficciones Jorge Luis Borges The title of  Jorge Luis Borges 's  Ficciones  is both precise and accurate. It is indeed a book of fictions. What it is not, I was surprised to find, is a book of stories.  Ficciones  combines two short prose books by  Borges :  El jardín de los senderos que se bifurcan  ( The Garden of Forking Paths ) , consisting of a prolog followed by seven works, and  Artificios  ( Artifices ) , consisting of a prolog and nine works.  Borges  is a creative genius and the imagination he shows in these pages is dazzling. But, with a few exceptions, they are not actually stories. They are scholarly expositions of splendidly creative ideas. For instance, the first work, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," is a description of some very strange fictional places. When I say "story," I mean something like what literary scholars mean by the word, a work of fiction with a plot and characters. By a plot I mean, roughly, a tale ...

Down on the Farm Charles Stross Sorcerers go mad. In  Charles Stross 's  LaundryVerse  they suffer from K-syndrome (Krantzberg-Godel Spongiform Encephalopathy), a disease that results from running invocations on the neural hardware in your brain, in contrast with the safe practices of modern computational demonologists such as Bob Howard, who use electronic computers. ("Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of." -- Arthur Dent.) Mad sorcerers are a problem. You can't just give them a pension, even with generous health care. Compared to a mad sorcerer, a thermonuclear warhead is no more than a minor annoyance. Mad sorcerers need to be protected from themselves, and we need to be protected from them. Unknown to Bob, the Laundry has a facility, "St Hilda of Grantham’s Home For Disgruntled Waifs And Strays" (as Bob eventually remarks, "most of them aren’t so much disgruntled as demonically posse...