My Christmas Ghost Story

Back in 1955, I had a Christmas-season job loading and unloading freight trains for Railway Express in the Sunnyside Rail Yards. I have two distinct memories of that experience: one has to do with weather and the other about a soldier’s duffel bag. The weather: My first night on the job, I went dressed for a winter day in New York City. What a shock I got. I was working what amounted to an overnight shift on a very cold early December day. The sunken rail yards must have been 20 degrees colder that the surface streets. It was one of the most brutally cold night I ever went through. Not even a frenzied working pace warmed me. The bowl of thick chicken soup I had for our dinner break in the greasy spoon upstairs from the freight center was one of the best meals of my life. I dressed for subzero weather after that. Now, the soldier’s duffel bag. Part of each shift, I stood next to a conveyer belt from which the baggage was sifted to different locations. A soldier’s duffel bag missing an address came by my station on my second night on the job. As instructed, items without addresses were to be tossed onto a pile to be examined by some higher authority in search of a destination. I tossed the duffel bag. That same duffel bag passed me every night for the four weeks I worked for Railway Express. I told supervisors about the bag. “Throw on the pile, kid,” essentially was their response—and the bag continued its conveyer belt journey. I often wonder at Christmas time if that duffel bag is still wandering along a ghostly conveyer belt in a Railway Express yard that no longer exists.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Five-star review of OOOEELIE

Finally, a five-star review of OOOEELIE on Kindle, a book which really deserves five stars and a lot more readers. I say so even though I am the author. Jes headed her review with the headline: Wow. The review: “It was a very good read. I love the full circle the story takes you on that is the reality of actual life.”

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Brief, incisive review of THE DREAM DANCER

Ana Baumgartner gave my novel, THE DREAM DANCER, five stars in this review on Kindle: “Thought provoking very meaningful piece of literature. It was a sad realistic look at the dichotomy of Western thought and Native American beliefs.”

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

A four-star review of J. R. Locke’s DOWN & OUT in MANHATTAN

J.R. Locke’s gripping novel, DOWN & OUT in MANHATTAN could have been a five-star novel. I give it four stars because it is gripping; I found it hard to stop reading at bedtime. Jack Cole, the protagonist, is fully-formed and sympathetic despite his believable personality flaws. Det. Sgt. Nat Turner is admirable and the police procedural parts of the book are fairly well done. There are some glaring faults in the details of the story, but it was so much a page turner that I was willing to overlook them. I was 80 percent of the way through the book when I told one of my sons, DOWN & OUT in MANHATTAN is a must read. The book slowed a bit after that. The ending lost it a star, because it was a Hollywood cop out. I am sure many readers will love the finale and wouldn’t be aware of how good this book could have been.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

An alternative experiment to counteract shingles

After watching a Charlie Rose segment on the brain—dealing with pain, (Bain Series 2 Episode 11: Pain, I decided to renew my Mind over Shingles approach to the aftermath of my shingles that has afflicted the area around my left eye, forehead and scalp for more than four years. In reading the notes in my shingles file, I realize I tried meditation, NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) and Herbert Benson’s relaxation response at times over the past four years with some success, but did not keep at it or note the progress or lack of it on a daily basis. I am inspired to renew my mind over shingles experiment by a comment from Dr. Eric Kandel, Charlie’s co-host on the Brain Series, that perhaps researchers should examine pain from the brain to the site of the injury or disease rather than tracking it from the injured site to the brain. And, one of the panelists suggested alternative approaches to reducing pain could be used, which he defined as yoga and tai chi—NOT mentioning mediation, NLP or Herbert Benson. I might note that I have done tai chi on an almost a daily basis for at least 20 years only allowing it to pass from my daily routine a few months. Starting today, I will meditate instead of napping unless I am exhausted or fatigued and will apply NLP and return to tai chi. I plan to keep a journal of the impact, if any. Currently, when the sensations get too bad, I find brief relief from my aftermath of shingles (or more precisely my Postherpetic Neuralgia) with occasional hot compresses and occasional doses of Motrin. I will report my findings next month and periodically after that if the experiment seems to have results.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

THE JYNX is a great contemporary novel

A Kindle reviewer who calls himself LP “as can be” from Houston, Texas gave THE JYNX a five-star review under

the heading “A wonderful contemporary read.” Here is the review: In perusing free titles for the Kindle, I found The Jynx. I was not won over with the description (neither clamming or sculpting struck me as overly interesting), but decided to give it a try. One week later, I was through with this thoroughly enjoyable read. Mr. Crowe's characters have both real world problems and complexities. I find some contemporary fiction has too many characters with "issues." There are no perfect people in The Jynx, but the conflicts they face are easily related without being boring. Billy is a wonderful protagonist who, despite his age and seemingly fixed lifestyle, evolves through his relationships with others in the book and his art. The conclusion arrives abruptly but with a satisfactory finality. The Jynx is a great contemporary novel and I hope to read more from Mr. Crowe soon.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Januarius MacGahan/Ben Connolly

After more than 30 years of trying, I finally got my Januarius MacGahan/Paris Commune book finished and available to readers. The title is now Ben Connolly in the Paris Commune. Ben Connolly is available on Kindle and Amazon. You can download it free on a Kindle on Oct. 5 and 6, 2012. MacGahan was an incredibly gifted writer and reporter, whose reports on the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria in the late 1870s is credited with drawing Russia into a war with Turkey while keeping the British neutral resulting in winning Bulgaria’s independence from the Ottoman Empire. After my first book, America for Sale, was published I was torn between writing a biography of MacGahan or of Libya’s dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. I decided I would do MacGahan first and then turn to Gaddafi. I never got around to Gaddafi, and as I said, the MacGahan venture took me 30 plus years until I came up with a finished product. In 1978, I went on a pilgrimage to New Lexington, Ohio, MacGahan's home town, as a symbolic gesture as I began my research for his biography. I was surprised to find people from all over the world and the U.S. there to celebrate MacGahan’s accomplishments and to observe the hundredth anniversary of his death. I was dismayed to discover another an American had just finished writing a biography of MacGahan (although it took ten years to appear in print) and a Bulgarian was trying to find a U.S. outlet for his biography of MacGahan. As a result, I decided to write a novel about MacGahan. I won’t torture you with the setbacks I had in writing, researching and trying to get my MacGahan novel published. Realizing that using the real MacGahan as my protagonist, I was seriously limiting my freedom as a story teller. Finally, I decided to solve the stricture problem by creating a character based on MacGahan at the Paris Commune while drawing many details from his newspaper stories in the New York Herald. The end result is Ben Connolly in the Paris Commune.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

The aftermath of shingles after four years

I awoke this morning with the usual unpleasant feeling on the upper lid and area around my left eye on this fourth anniversary of coming down with shingles. A couple of weeks ago, I had a hopeful sign that the unending cycle of itching, aching, and disagreeable sensations around my eye, on my forehead and on my scalp might some day end: For about ten minutes, I didn’t feel anything. Then of course, it all came back. I had this experience of freedom from this little plague again a few days later, and again only for about 10 minutes. On occasion when the going gets too rough, I take a Motrin and I put hot compresses on my left eye. Those treatments really ease the affliction. Everyone 60 and older who had chickenpox as a kid should consider getting the shingles vaccine.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

National Grid customers beware!

I never paid much attention to my utility bills until I got my August natural gas bill for $3,101.03 from National Grid. What a shocker. I assumed that must be a mistake since my recent bills had been $108 a month. Digging into the roots of that ghastly bill revealed what a mess National Grid’s billing system is. Checking my available gas bills from February, 2012 to August, 2012 I discovered a pattern of errors that dismayed me and brings into question the integrity and competence of National Grid. I would have thought that when a consumer bill pops up as 28 times higher than previous bills either a computer or clerk would have realized something was wrong. To make this complex account easier to follow, I am numbering the incidents: 1. The April reading of my gas meter by the company was 7725 CCF (100 cubic feet), but two months later in June the reading recorded was 7657 CCF. How does the June reading drop to less than April’s. Either someone made a mistake or made up the numbers. 2. The August bill charging me $3,101.03 showed the “ACTUAL reading” of the meter on Aug. 2 to be 1940 CCF from which the June 4 “ACTUAL reading” of 7657 CCF was subtracted to arrive at 4283 CCF used. The numbers down add up or subtract, but I figure the margin of error is 10,000 (ten thousand)! How did that happen? A failed computer or an incompetent human being? 3. My June bill covering 122 days—from the depths of winter to spring—showed an average daily use of Therms (a measure of heat) to 1.7. While the August bill charging me $3,121.03 showed an average of 72.5 Therms a day for 59 days of summer—or about 42 times the average of winter and spring days. Hard to believe that massive surge could be missed by a competent computer system or clerk, whichever was responsible for processing the bill. 4. Sticking with June, I was sent two bills in June. The first on June 5, 2012 for $132.75 for gas. The second bill on June 8, 2012 for $119.70. The second bill shows actual usage. 5. After I received the Aug. 3, 2012 bill for $3,121.03, I called National Grid’s customer service office and surprisingly got a representative immediately. I anticipated, she would say “oh that must be a mistake.” Instead I had to identify myself through my account number, my name, my phone number, my address—and worst of all the last four digits of my social security number. Why in the world was that social security information demanded? I didn’t want to give her those four digits. She wouldn’t proceed with my complaint until I gave then to her. A meter reader was sent to my house a few days later to come up with the reading that would reduce my bill to $110.27. 6. The August bill reducing my payment was a list of numbers finagled to come out with the sum of $110.27. I paid it realizing it was the end game of a seriously questionable process. The only incident of residential billing worse than mine that I could find on Long Island in browsing the web and Newsday was the case of Sal and Ruth Mazzaro of Lynbrook who were overcharged $10,000 for gas during the span of 41 years because they were erroneously classified as commercial customers instead of residential. Arithmetic ($10,000 divided by 41 years by 12) shows about $20 a month was incorrectly added to the Mazzaro’s gas bill because of the utilities’ incorrect classification. Reflecting our corporate-centered society in which the consumer is a helpless pawn, the New York State Public Service Commission ruled that the utilities, National Grid and its predecessors, were without fault in the misclassification and that the Mazzaro’s should have caught the error by reading their bills. Oh yeah. Instead of getting the $10,000 back, the Mazzaro’s are entitled to only $420 for a year’s worth of overcharges, according to the Public Service Commission ruling. The PSC ruling means it is okay for companies to overcharge through carelessness, but consumers are punished for failing to realize and report the overcharge. How many times has this happened? Who pays a lawyer’s attention to their utility bill? I am sure that I and the Mazzaro’s are not alone in being overcharged. Who is looking out for the individual consumer? Is any agency doing check spot audits of National Grid’s billings? I don’t know, but one should be. Obviously, the State PSC is not oriented to protect consumers on Long Island or anywhere else. Caveat emptor.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

A pithy review of The Absconder by Kenneth C. Crowe

The Absconder was given a pithy, but salient review on iTunes Apple. The five-star review by GWRich: “Thank you Kenneth or, if I may call you, Ken. Well done, twisting, and the over-used yet apt term engrossing. As close to epic as the story of one individual could be. Don't hesitate to download and/or buy any work by this author.”

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

A review of The Trinity Game by Sean Chercover

The Trinity Game is a religio-mystery thriller in which author Sean Chercover displays an admirable imagination. God comes off as an unknowable entity while the Catholic Church hierarchy and born-again television evangelists are depicted as selfish, dismal creatures serving mammon and misleading their gullible flocks. The Rev. Tim Trinity, a con-man, faith healer, TV evangelist, finds he really believes in God when he truly speaks in tongues—rather than cynically using the technique to extract cash from his audience. CNN and its talking heads are a significant element in the background of the story along with the sorrowful economic state of print journalism. So from what I have written so far you can see that this is not a book for blindly religious and sensitive Catholics or Protestants. Daniel Byrne, The Trinity Game’ priest protagonist and professional debunker of miracles, is very much an ordinary man in his hunger for a woman, finer foods, and good alcohol. Chercover is so engaging a writer that I had some difficulty in putting The Trinity Game down as the night grew near morning and my bedtime. Towards the end, the book slows to the mundane of a Hollywood thriller, but it is an acceptable conclusion, but stops The Trinity Game from being a great novel. Overall The Trinity Game is well worth reading.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Five stars for The Hero by Kenneth C. Crowe

Kindle reviewer Arnold Mitchell gave THE HERO five stars on Aug. 12, 2012. Mitchell’s review: “For me the characters (are) believable and interesting. It caught me off guard with the time setting but made it very more interesting to read. Only a couple of misspellings (less than 4 that i found) compared to other books for the same price range which made the book that much better. The book is much better than the cover would suggest in my opinion.”

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

A four-star review of OOOEELIE by Kenneth C. Crowe

A four-star review of OOOEELIE on Kindle by Madeline: “I enjoyed this story about a dog who is superior to Man. It was well balanced, with a good amount of 'What?' mixed with 'Oh, I see!' I think it is self-published, as there were several typos and a few grammar errors, but although these usually distract me totally, I found I could ignore them and get on with the story. Only small flaw in that was the heroine changed from first opinions to final ones too suddenly. I will read another book by this author, but I hope he will get a better editor next time.”

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

A four-star review of OOOEELIE by Kenneth C. Crowe

A four-star review of OOOEELIE on Kindle by Madeline: “I enjoyed this story about a dog who is superior to Man. It was well balanced, with a good amount of 'What?' mixed with 'Oh, I see!' I think it is self-published, as there were several typos and a few grammar errors, but although these usually distract me totally, I found I could ignore them and get on with the story. Only small flaw in that was the heroine changed from first opinions to final ones too suddenly. I will read another book by this author, but I hope he will get a better editor next time.”

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

DREAM DANCER REVIEW From Goodreads

DREAM DANCER REVIEW From Goodreads: Jul 01, 2012 Bethany rated it (five stars) I'm not one to really take the time to write a review but after finishing this book I feel there are a few words that have to be said. It's hard to find many books regarding really any Native American topic, especially when just browsing for free ebooks, but I downloaded this book on a whim without really knowing what to expect. I won't go into much detail but this book tells the story of Coop Rever, a celebrated war vet living a good life in France as a journalist, who cannot deny the calling of Koona Manitou to come back to the Okwe reservation in America and fulfill his destiny to save his people. The setting starts out in the 50's and Crowe portrays the horrific racism endured by the Native Americans during this time period, being branded as "red niggers" and treated as less than second class citizens who aren't even believed that they should possess their own land by the white politicians and corrupt police force/correction officers. Every time I thought I knew where the direction of the story was going, Crowe threw me for another loop and spun Coop's life for yet another painful turn. Not only does the reader gain more knowledge of the much under-discussed plight of Native American life, especially in context of maintaining their culture while being corralled into reservations in order to be stuffed away from the white population, but it also sheds a terrible light on the inhumanity of prison life during that time. Without spoiling any of this thought-provoking tale, let's just say that after reading the story of Coop (an unlikely but surprisingly sympathetic character), one gains a new perspective on life, the strength of the human spirit, and just how much suffering one can endure (and have denied) and still manage to survive. One of the deepest and most disturbing books that I've read in a while. I will definitely be reading more by Kenneth Crowe

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

BEFORE THE FALL by Orna Ross: some thoughts

This is a five-star novel. Ross has a nice way with words. A couple of examples: “the one he likes best is the one who comes out when we’re home, snuggled up, three quarters of the way down a bottle of wine.” Or, “Dirty dishes accumulate in my sink until furred.” Her description of a plunge into alcoholism is grand, as the Irish might say. There is so much written about “roots.” The protagonist of this novel overcomes her roots, triumphs over the society into which she was born and her family ties to emerge as a startlingly independent, fulfilled woman. She takes the reader to unexpected places: backwater Ireland, to London, to San Francisco, where she is the most interesting. I suffer from an affliction, perhaps, of living in the modern world, but I was halfway through the novel before I realized what the title meant, who was the fallen.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

For Science Fiction fans: OOOEELIE by Kenneth C. Crowe

A woman named Raine gave my novel, OOOEELIE, its first review, suggesting that Science Fiction fans would enjoy the book. The review on Shelfari: Rated 4 stars “I needed a book to read and I looked on my kindle and started OOOEELIE. it starts out about a couple whose marriage is on the rocks, and it seemed pretty interesting. Then I got to Chapter 9. If you can make it past Chapter 9 (where it is explained how Oooeelie is a descendant/reincarnate of a dog who landed on earth from outer space and taught man how to communicate) you will really enjoy this book. I'm not a science fiction book reader, but this one was really good. I really couldn't put it down. I liked the story of Joanna and how her life changed and also how her husband Gil was able to reinvent himself. The story of the Wesos Foundation and how the (foundation) tracked Oooeelie kept the story going. The ending was perfect! You can tell that this book was written by a man by some of the descriptions of the love/sex escapades. Oooeelie was not what I expected, but it was really enjoyable. I think Science Fiction fans would really like this. Give it a try!” Raine wrote this review 2 days ago.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Oooeelie by Kenneth C. Crowe is free

After two years of indecision, I decided to turn my e-novel OOOEELIE into a freebie on Smashwords, which means it will be free on Barnes and Noble, Apple, and Sony. Of course, I would like to make money from my writing, but what tipped me into making OOOEELIE gratis is my desire for an ever larger readership. I am approaching an overall total of 50,000 downloads of my various novels. Three of them have been offered to readers without of charge, obviously the preference of my audience. Adding OOOEELIE to the free mix hopefully will speed me to my 50,000 download goal. A brief description of the novel: The book opens in the backyard of a house on Long Island overlooking Huntington Harbor. There is a husband, a wife, and a beautiful dog, an Airedale with the strange name of Oooeelie. There is a sense of a growing distance, of marital discord between the man and the woman, Gil and Joanna Tyrling. Gil’s business ventures are collapsing; his body, his spirit, and his marriage are tumbling too. He longs for something better, something that seems beyond his reach. And so does the dog. The reader will soon discover Oooeelie is no ordinary Airedale, but the reincarnation of a canine creature who taught man to speak tens of thousands of years ago. Like the hero of all good dog stories, Oooeelie is on an unrelenting quest to return to the home he loves. That place happens to be millions of light years away on a planet in Sirius System, and Oooeelie has been trying to get there ever since he crashed onto earth in a spaceship gone awry.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

THE FEAR INDEX by Robert Harris in perspective

The Fear Index: The lesson to be learned: How to take a used subject and turn into a very readable novel. The story is derivative. I saw a major piece of the theme in a television drama back in the 50s, maybe the 60s, and of course there was the novel, FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley, written in the Nineteenth Century with another, very large piece of the theme.
Like all Robert Harris’ novels, it is well worth reading

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Discovering A.H. Raskin’s review of COLLISION by Kenneth C. Crowe

One of the great disappointments of my writing life was the failure of the New York Times to review COLLISION, my book about Teamsters for a Democratic Union and the election of Ron Carey to the presidency of the union in 1992.
When COLLISION was published in February, 1993, I was told in confidence by Moe Foner of 1199, the hospital workers union, that A.H. Raskin, the great labor writer, had written a review of the book for the New York Times. Moe was a mutual friend of both Raskin and me.
I so looked forward to reading what Abe Raskin (whom I greatly admired) had to say about my book. Eventually, COLLISION was reviewed by the Washington Post, Newsday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer; the list goes on of major newspapers and magazines all over the country. But it doesn’t include the New York Times.
Raskin, who had been ill for some time, died at the age of 82 in December, 1993.
I had always wondered whether he finished the review and then: I was roaming the internet where I discovered a reference to Raskin’s papers including “Review of Collision by Kenneth C. Crowe undated.”
Finally, I could read what Raskin said about my book.
I went to New York University’s Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, where I discovered that the Raskin papers had been processed in 2011 by project archivist Daniel Michelson.
I love Abe Raskin’s review. These excerpts explain why:
“In ‘Collision’, written by Kenneth C. Crowe, we find an accurate, brilliant, fact-filled chronology of the plight of the rank and file in their attempt to take back the reins of power.
“For the student of labor wishing to be well versed in the inner revolution of the rank and file against the stronghold of the mob, this book will serve as an invaluable source of information...
“Citing the difficult rise to authority in the blatantly non-democratic Teamsters, the book describes the struggle of those such as the brave and devotedly committed union patriot, Ronald Carey and his 35 year ascent to his present position as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.”
(Raskin gives credit to TDU for the significant support that rank and file organization gave to Carey.)
Raskin continued: “In years to come ‘Collision’ will be viewed as an invaluable reference book, an encyclopedia of the post-Hoffa Teamster era.”
Raskin’s assessment of the significance of COLLISION as “an invaluable reference book” has proven true. COLLISION has been cited in numerous civil and criminal lawsuits, research papers, and labor books.

A suggestion: my novel, THE TRUCKERS, has been described as a fun read. It is serious and tragic too. Try it free on Kindle, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, or Apple.

Disdain for the unpaid novelist

I looked into the eyes of a novelist friend over lunch last week and sensed disdain as I told him that I was approaching 45,000 downloads of my free ebooks, three novels: THE DREAM DANCER, THE HERO, and THE JYNX.
He put the old fashioned notion of writing for money that I saw in his eyes into words: “And how much have you been paid.” No question mark. It wasn’t a question, but I will answer it:
I wasn’t paid in cash, but the profit has come in other forms. Before I made the novels free I charged to read them, managing to sell a few dozen. I wanted a larger audience and I have achieved that along with the occasional review or “like it,” or stars.
My novelist friend’s one novel, published many years ago, is still for sale as previously owned on Amazon with other reaping the cash; and it is available in public libraries as a free read. No money to be made there either. He hasn’t been able to find a traditional publisher for his later works; I know that empty feeling.
In case you are curious, I do have three more novels for sale at modest prices on the various internet sites (Kindle, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Apple iTunes, Sony, etc. They are: OOOEELIE, THE TRUCKERS, and THE ABSCONDER.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

A few thoughts on THE GAME OF THRONES by George R. R. Martin

THE GAME OF THRONES by George R. R. Martin: When you read a book and want to read on, obviously that’s the sign of a good piece of writing. The Game of Thrones is a short book at 820 pages (the print version). I read it on my Kindle.
I give it five stars for entertainment, not substance. The characters—there are many protagonists--emerge in their different ways as jealous, cruel, fearless, brave, crazy, vicious, ambitious to a fault, loyal and submissive. Having said that I didn’t come away with any special perspective on human nature. The author simplified a complex cast and subject by using the technique of focusing on a single point of view in chapters entitled with a character’s name.
There are interesting touches of fantasy, an atmosphere of constant threat, and a mystery of what nightmares lay beyond the wall.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

HELL AT THE BREECH by Tom Franklin, a review

HELL AT THE BREECH is a story of greed and violence in a section of turn-of-the-century Alabama, which is reminiscent of the wild west. The writing carried me along; whenever the author focused on the protagonist, Sheriff Waite, the book came alive. There is an element of the mystical in one character, a midwife, who has second sight. There are the innocents who do casually evil things. There is a string of false assumptions that carry the characters into deadly actions in the novel as in real life. Justice comes in the form of a crazed mob killing innocents as well as the guilty and from the sheriff who is capable of relentless brutality. It was a well-written, at times powerful book, but one reading of this author is enough.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Notes on MYSTIC RIVER by Dennis Lehane

My notes from March 15, 2004: MYSTIC RIVER by Dennis Lehane. After seeing the film, I read the book—and couldn’t put it down. I tried reading a Lehane detective novel before picking up Mystic River and I thought it was awful. This was an instance of the film improving the book since I could see each character from the movie as I read. This was a well-written novel of family, betrayal, planned violence, misassumptions (life is so filled with them), random violence, and the vagaries of life.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Pretty Good for Free

THE JYNX has finally been lifted from the depths of Barnes and Noble by an anonymous reviewer who gave it four stars on Jan. 15, 2012. The only previous rater, also anonymous, had given it two stars without an explanation. The four star reviewer posted a very brief review under the headline: “Pretty Good for Free.”
The review: “I have paid for books that were not nearly as well done.” I assume this positive rating and review could result in higher downloads for THE JYNX on Barnes and Noble. I hope so.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.

Notes on DISGRACE by J. M. Coetzee

J. M. Coetzee is the South African writer who won the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature,
DISGRACE is a piece of literary writing without pretensions of being literary. Coetzee is so commanding a writer that it just is literary. The story flows easily, the writing is relatively simple and very engaging. I was drawn into the world of the protagonist David Lurie, a 52-year-old twice-divorced, college professor in Cape Town, South Africa.
Sex is the center of his life; with prostitutes, with students, with hungry women. An affair he pressed on a 19 or 20 year student plunges him into disgrace in the minds of everyone but himself. He is so extraordinarily self-centered and arrogant he isn’t aware of the impropriety of what he did with the student.
His arrogance prevents him humbling himself to save his job and his pension. He didn’t like his job anyhow. He had no respect for his students, and a strong distaste for his teaching. His dream is to write an opera about Bryon and one of his many mistresses, Teresa, a young Italian woman, only 19, recently married, whom Byron has dumped. Teresa, however, longs for Byron for the remainder of her life. Their affair was a transforming experience for her.
In the aftermath of being forced from his teaching post, Lurie goes into the backcountry of South Africa, where his daughter, Lucy, a lesbian whose lover has abandoned her, is running a small farm with the help of Petrus, a hired black African. Lucy doesn’t respect her father, who like so many, if not almost all, parents still wants to run his daughter’s life, assuming that he knows what is best for her no matter how much she resists.
On a day the black African, Petrus, isn’t around, two black men and a youth appear at Lucy’s farm. Lurie, who is suspicious of the three from the outset, is shoved into a bathroom and locked in with little resistance on his part. Dealing with predators, Lurie acts as though talking to them will make them go away. His daughter is raped and impregnated; the three pour mineral oil on Lurie and set him afire, laughing at him. They steal his car and whatever they find valuable at the farm.
Lurie’s burns are painful and embarrassing, but not devastatingly serious. He comes across as a wimp at best and a coward at worst, a man so civilized that he has lost the capability of fighting in the face of superior odds no matter what the outcome. Later in the book, he comes across the youth involved in the attack on Lucy and bats him around—an easier task than fighting two strong, determined, violent men.
It turns out that the boy is a relative of Petrus’ and Petrus has designs on Lucy’s farm. Petrus owns the land next door. Petrus is used to illustrate the shift in power in South Africa in that he decides he will no longer farm for Lucy and that if she wants to fall under his protection she has to become his third wife or concubine—not that he really wants her sexually, but because he wants to own the land and dominate his little world.
Lucy is willing to go along with that arrangement if Petrus will guarantee she can keep her house. She is just as empty as her father, but in a different way.
The two grown predators were more interested in demeaning the once dominate whites, Lurie and Lucy, than in robbing them. They use rape to illustrate the shift in power in post-apartheid South Africa. Perhaps there is play on the issue of rape domination since Lurie used his dominant role as a professor to impose himself sexually on a young woman, which is a subtle form of rape/domination. The earthy Africans used the old fashioned approach to physically forcing themselves on the white woman, Lucy, in their exercise of domination/rape.
There is an interesting subplot of the fascination and lure of creativity with Lurie locked into his opera, living in his mind. But the emptiness and self-centeredness and selfishness of the professor is driven home at the end of the book when he allows a crippled stray dog, who has come to love him and depend on him, to be euthanized instead of saving him. Perhaps it also shows how little Lurie values life, his own and other creatures. At no point did the book become a drag. Coetzee, indeed, is a great writer, a great creator of characters, a great grasper of the turmoil in the South African society in which he once lived.

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The End of the Trail: 1 or Synchronicity and Syracuse Herald Journal

On a morning in the mid-December just past, I was putting together the biography a minor character, the editor of the New York Vision, in my latest rewrite of BEN CONNOLLY in the PARIS COMMUNE when I decided to look up Alexander (Casey) Jones, who was the decidedly larger than life editor of the Syracuse Herald Journal when I worked there as a reporter from late 1959 to early 1963.
In the course of my Googling, I found a story by Dick Long, an old friend from Syracuse, written in November, 2010 about the passing of Howard Carroll, another colleague in my Syracuse days.
I decided to contact Dick—and much to my dismay I learned he had died the week before. Looking a little further, the name of another Herald Journal colleague, Jane Vadeboncoeur, was added to my list of the dead along with Bill Stevens.
And then, the synchronicity: later in the afternoon of my Googling, a Christmas card from Jerry Cooley, my favorite editor in my Syracuse days, arrived with a note telling me that Dick Long and Joan Vadeboncoeur had died.
All five are held in treasured corners of my memory:
Casey Jones, who had been the managing editor of the Washington Post before coming to Syracuse, was so commanding a writer and so dominant a figure that everyone in Syracuse, glanced at the front page of the Herald Journal then immediately turned to the editorial page to read his by-lined editorial of the day.
Dick Long taught me my beginning skills as an investigative reporter: how to look up real estate deals, how to shove aside those blocking the way to dig into public records.
Howard Carroll was my model as a journalist. He was crusty, he was a master of reporting, he was generous. The one incident that I have never forgotten was a day on which we all repaired, as we often did, to a local seedy bar for an after deadline drink. Beer was ten cents a glass. The reporters were joking and laughing and talking about the stories just written when a man in a very nice suit sitting along the bar leaned over to say to Howard, “I used to be a newspaperman.”
“What do you do now?” Howard asked.
“Public relations for xxxx Corporation.”
“You were never a newspaperman,” Howard said, each word dripping with contempt, turning his back on the very nice suit.
Not many years later, Howard became director of media relations for the National Education Association, which sounds like a PRman to me. I often wondered if Howard remembered that unforgettable (for me) scene in that seedy bar.
The early 1960s was still an era of black and brown sports jackets and white shirts; in other words clothing was generally dull. Even our ties were dull. One day, Joan Vadeboncoeur, walked into the office in a “shocking pink” suit. That was so startling as fashion moment in that grey city room that over the years I have recalled it in many a conversation.
Bill Stevens was a terrific reporter and writer and all-round nice guy, who in an act of generosity gave me a piece of free lance business writing for an appliance magazine. We weren’t paid much at the Syracuse Herald Journal so the money was very welcome. I would sit down one weekend a month and earn more money from this free lance assignment than I did in a week or two as a newspaper reporter.
Bill, who also worked for the AP and UPI, died in November.

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