Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World by Haruki Murakami After reading Men Without Women, by Haruki Murakami, I did some research on him. I was intrigued enough with his writing style, I thought I’d give another one of his books a whirl. I came across the books he’s really famous for, 1Q84, but oh my, it’s 1200 pages. I stated how I feel about a long book and 1200 pages is very scary, so I found a few small works, Kafa on the Shore and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and th

In my dedication in my book, Sanctuary, I mentioned Stephen King. It was his book, On Writing, that inspired me to write. He states that stories are much better unearthed, rather than created. This is the technique I used to pen Sanctuary. Every time a contrived a passages, I ended up trashing it as it was sh*t. It was was much better to put the characters in a situation and just listen. This process was so amazing. I became the audience and I couldn't wait to return the keyb

Rehabilitation of a reader Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami This author keeps popping up. He writes in something called Magical Surrealism. Very intriguing. His book, the one the most people recommend, is 1Q84, which is 1,200 pages. I’ve already stated my thoughts on books over 500 pages. Would this be a bloat fest? I thought I would dip my toes into the water and try something a little less time consuming. So I picked up Men Without Women (a collection of short stories)

Dark Matter By Blake Crouch Having a conversation with a friend, telling him about my journey to become a reader again, he suggested that I should try Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. He is the person I bounce my ideas off of for books I’m going to write. He thought that my book, Losing Grip, sounded like Dark Matter. Dark Matter deals with multiverses, and mine, with dreams and parallel worlds. Okay, I’ll give it a whirl. This was a chilling experience because our styles are so

This is a continuation of a Rehabilitation of Reader blog. I’m trying to keep it to 5 to 6 reviews per blog. When I started this journey, I wanted to read for at least 2 hours every morning. It’s now become a thing with me. Testing out different writing styles and subject matters has been fun. Next up: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. Interesting concept; a man with tattoos that are live, telling stories. I love this book. A great way to compile short stores. My favorit

I used to read, not a lot, about five to six books a year, and then about 15 years ago I stopped, at least with fiction. Now I write, I write books that I would like to read. But one thing keeps coming up, you can't be a writer if you don't read. Is this true? I'm not convinced, but I do like to read. So, I have created a schedule to get back into activity. This blog is my honest account of that journey: the books I pick up, the challenges I face, and the joy I rediscover. I

I sent out copies of my new book Sanctuary II to my reader, and while waiting for feedback, I started another work called Losing Grip. This was so compelling, I finished the rough draft. It's smaller is length than Sanctuary, and has fewer characters, I found it so gripping (which is ironic considering it's title). I struggled with covers for Sanctuary and The Education of a Cab Driver but this story came with the cover fully developed. I will post the cover soon. I'm now pus

This is an enjoyable novel that is driven by its fast action and snappy, authentic dialogue. The author doesn’t intrude with lengthy descriptive passages or information dumps. Instead, he allows the words and deeds of his characters to carry the reader along. This makes for a pacey story that twists and turns from start to finish. I also liked how the author handles the subplots, shifting seamlessly from one to another in a way that keeps the reader’s attention from waning. T

It's been a long road to get to this point. Writing a finish book is a great mountain to climb. As it turns out, it maybe the easy part. Follow my journey . . . I'm going to do it! I was without a steady job from year and half years. So, why not give this cab driving thing a go? With death lurking at every corner, or if not death, many seeing you as the true "cash cab" (as the cash I would carry, would be attractive to those who might want to separate me from my cash). I've