Trueblood and Secord were still on the Beltway when Trueblood's smart phone interrupted their reverie. It was Doris.

“C'mon back. Bart says the redhead's already talked with the wife.”

“What?”

“She's got the interview on tape. Wants to play it for you.”… Read full post »

[I wrote this Friday night but the snowstorm blocked our satellite server.]

My anal retentive, passive aggressive, narcissistic, atheistic dad would get this. He always said everybody's a little nuts. It went without saying he meant except him. Haven't missed him much until this moment… Read full post »

Amazon has just released the newly revised Sacrifice, which is now available in the Kindle Bookstore for a buck.  I rewrote the prologue and went thru the entire novel, smoothing out prose and reconciling story glitches -- stuff I should have caught in the first published draft… Read full post »

This is my third go at it.  Powerful learning lesson for me.  The first one was hackneyed, read like the late pitchman Billy Mays shouting on TV, second one was gimmicky and embarrasing -- it's still on the book's Amazon listing, but soon to be replaced by this one.  Hope you… Read full post »

Read full post »

It was one of those incredible literary coincidences destined to reside in Wiki annals forever.  GV, who on a sour whim had stretched his writing chops just once in his life to post a "customer review" on Amazon, found himself seated on a bar stool next to… Read full post »

But I sense they're still fighting to keep this place, trying to figure out how to transfer the database from the old platform to the new.  As long as there's hope I'll keep coming back.

I pledged to stay away until Dec. 19, which is Wednesday, so I'm breaking my pledge… Read full post »

Open Salon is a community that uses the OS website to stay in touch with a core group of people who enjoy writing and discussing all kinds of topics. We, the writers, are the community; Open Salon is only a platform. We believe the OS platform has become… Read full post »

I saw surprise distort Albert's face when he appeared in the doorway that separated his office from what he called “the big office”. He was holding the morning mail pouch, which he ordinarily carries to my working office across the oval room where I sit now.… Read full post »

I awoke this morning with an old, old song in my head. It was one I hadn't heard or thought of since I was a child. My parents loved to sing it together on our frequent drives in the car, our favorite family recreation. Their singing of it… Read full post »

Do not go raging into that bleak night,

Old age should know frustration's not the way;

Float, float when all about you's losing light.

Wise men at their end know it be quite

Demeaning to our dignity to bray,

Do not embarrass others with… Read full post »

A documentary video, Finding Paddy, has just been released commemorating New York City's most celebrated firefighter.

Capt. Patrick Brown died along with eleven of his men when the World Trade Center's North Tower crumbled into a pile of fiery rubble on the morning of Sept. 11,… Read full post »

I made up the story that became my latest novel, Sacrifice, episode by episode. It worked pretty much the same way I used to string a serial story along for my daughter at bedtime when she was six or seven. Kept the same characters in play, maybe adding a new… Read full post »

I know what a half virgin is. The question had been nagging since I first saw the title of John Blumenthal's new novel Three and a Half Virgins. It nagged me all the way through the book until I finished it last night, and now I… Read full post »

[This popped up on my Facebook page yesterday, so I decided to share it here.  I think Cranky wrote it anonymously.  Here's the site of origin:  Happy  Place]

What it would look like if Mitt Romney asked for campaign advice from his Facebook friends.

… Read full post »

Oh I know a gir-url, Samantha is her na-aaame, and since Samantha left me I've never been the sa-aaame...do-wah-wahhh do-do-wahhhh... You can hum along, but it wouldn't ease the pa-ain. I'm devastated. Shattered.  I couldn't give it away on 7^th Avenue, even if I knew what I had… Read full post »

'tis time I weighed in on "religion". I've been taking pot shots at it in comments for a while now, and Koshersalaami, whose decency, intelligence and judgment I respect greatly, took me and others of perhaps similar beliefs as mine to task, indirectly, in his most recent post, In… Read full post »

In our last session you'll recall we had just begun reading John Blumenthal's new novel, tantalizingly titled Three and a Half Virgins. The deal was that I would keep you abreast of developments as I sipped my way through this literary dessert while you, in return, would rate and comment.… Read full post »

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to frustrated rage. Out, out, with thy excuses!
OS is but a mindless spambot, a poor player,
That crawls and clogs its hour upon the/… Read full post »

This just in via PM from Tommy Tech Guy at OS Hq: 

The poet/philosphers have seized control of the building.  I've locked myself in the mop closet with only my laptop, a bagel and a box of apple juice, afraid to make a sound for fear I will… Read full post »

An error occurred, then the error handler crashed while trying to handle the error. Whoops!

Here are the details of the original error:

SELECT * from salon.open.private_messages AS P LEFT JOIN salon.open.user_message_folder AS UMF ON P.message_id = UMF.mid LEFT JOIN sal… Read full post »

Pretending. Pretending I'm the hottest damned literary agent in the Western Hemisphere and making inroads in the East. Inundated with queries, most of them referred to me by people I know or have heard of. Everyone querying me knowing my word alone will get them published… Read full post »

I haven't quite finished A View of the Charles by Con Chapman – only two short chapters from the end – but I awoke this morning with a terrible sensation. I knew, without a shred of doubt, somebody else, some serious, really good reviewer, would post his or her take… Read full post »

This started as a comment on a post by David Green I read this morning suggesting that key words will decide the election.  Green argues Republicans have been better at using simplistic language to tap into the instincts of voters. In this election, he says, the words GOPers are… Read full post »