Paul Revere’s Ride

Happy Independence Day, readers! Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, “If the British march By…

“To Be Loved by the Audience”

While researching an anime series she has come to enjoy titled Kabaneri no Koutetsujou (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress), this author was introduced to an important interview with the show’s creator. Araki Tetsuro, who worked on landmark series such as Death Note, was interviewed by Sugoi Japan about his new series in 2017. He began…

Providence and Miracles

For most of my life, I have heard critics, writers, and audiences complain about the last-minute save which occurs throughout most of fiction. We all know which moments these are; they are the pivot points on which the conflicts turn. It can be a last minute message that reaches the hero in the nick of…

Remember the Republic

“Left to themselves, Americans build, cultivate, bridge, dam, canalise, invent, teach, manufacture, think, write, lock themselves in struggle with the eternal challenges that man has chosen to confront, and with an intensity not known elsewhere on the globe. Bidden to make war their work, Americans shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose. There is, I have…

Plant a Standard….

          You cannot choose your battlefields,           The gods do that for you.           But you can plant a standard           Where a standard never flew. – Nathalia Crane, 1913 One of the most pernicious movements of our time may be the idea that artists can change the world. For decades…

A Word on Fiction from Dean Koontz

“I think you’re born to tell stories, Bibi [Blair]. That’s a wonderful thing. I’ve read more truth in fiction than in nonfiction, partly because fiction can deal with the numinous, and nonfiction rarely does. The human heart and spirit. The unknown. The unknowable. Storytelling can heal broken hearts and damaged minds. As a writer, Bibi,…

The Power of Story

“But this new component of the Guardians’ defenses, these ever-amassing stories, struck some deep and fearful alarm inside his [Pitch Black’s] dark heart. Spells, magic, jolliness, chocolate eggs, presents, elves, teeth – all the Guardians’ methods to fight his darkness were, to him, puny parlor tricks. But this power of story? He could not figure…

Moving Ahead One Step at a Time

A long time ago, I was given a very special book. It was the translated diary of a survivor of the Bosnia-Herzegovina war. Her name is Nadja Halilbegovich, and the title of her book is My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary. You can purchase it here, if you wish. It is worth reading. Growing up…

Songs from Sabaton

In keeping with the article on courage as inspiration for authors, this post lists the (growing) number of Sabaton songs that this writer listens to even when she is not writing. Each song has a story behind it, some of which are mentioned briefly beneath the videos made by Piscator (the notes beneath the videos…

Courage – Timeless Inspiration for Every Age

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRhg2zvalXc Recently, this author began to listen to the Swedish power metal band Sabaton. I am a little late to the game, since several of my fellow writers enjoy listening to and have mentioned them, but that does not matter. This group was worth the wait. For those who are not familiar with these performers,…