Holly

Wrote 5 new stories lately. This is the start of one of them: It's true that Buddy Holly is back, living in a boarding house about twenty minutes from the Canadian border. It's cold; it's not Lubbock, Texas. It took a while to get used to the new surroundings and the new body. And finding a guitar was essential as a seedling feeling for the sun. She had to have one. Holly got her first guitar when she was six. She heard the Beatles on the radio and played along. Everyone said she was a natural.

guitar

Here's another illustration from the paperboy novel. (This is our son's cheapo guitar, the glue gave out, but it sounds great! John Cage in a coffee can).

Harpo Lives!

Readers of my book Imaginary Someone will know that I was living in that mighty strange metropolis New York City for a while. One night I was at the infamous Blue & Gold which had a pool table and all of a sudden, down the stairs clattered Harpo Marx on rollerskates!! (You could say it was someone perfectly dressed as him, raincoat and top hat, but the apparition was so out of the blue and wonderful I know it was really him). He slid up to the startled guy playing, grabbed the cue stick and took a shot at a ball and before anyone could say a word, he clunked back up the steps and zoomed away. This really happened! The world is more beautifully mysterious than meets the eye.

sparrow

I'm working on getting 3 new books to the printer for you. This is a scene from the paperboy book. Our hero is guided deep into the woods by the chirping of a sparrow.

Eclipse

We were visiting Eclipse Books and noticed one of my books Bowl of Water next to old Robert Frost.

fuse boxes

Caught the end of Cry of the Werewolf (1944) and witnessed a great line: "Well Ed, I never thought I'd be giving lectures to guys like you who won't believe it anyway because you were off somewhere fixing fuse boxes."

george zucco & muse

not now, I'm busy

The Return of Oatmeal Houston

If you've read my collection The Book
of Ticks, you'll be excited to know that
cowboy star Oatmeal Houston has
returned in my latest novel. After writing
over 50 novels for you, constant readers
will notice a lot of these characters
weaving in and out of this magical
made-up land.
*The Book of Ticks illustrations by
Aaron Gunderson

Spring Fish

Got this lovely product at
the Dollar Store.

song of the times

Woken up by loud streetsweeper
that turned into the sound of
Charles Mingus' Fables of Faubus
song.

she wrote island

I have to admit I am baffled and
intrigued by the TV show Murder,
She Wrote. I'm not sure I ever watched
a whole episode before, something
always drives me a bit crazy--like how
does she not realize everyone around
her is speaking in terribly fake Maine
accents?! On the other hand, what a
great idea! An acclaimed crime-solving
detective writing fiction in a town that
is by its very existence a work of fiction!
Yes, it's fascinating indeed. (And why
does Leslie Nielsen keep reappearing as
a different ship captain?) Anyway, I do
have to give Jessica Fletcher (and Vera
Stanhope, a very different TV detective)
much acclaim for inspiring my character
Shelby Wills who appears in my novel
Island Air. My detective travels by train
to different towns across America solving
local crimes. Solving? Actually she is
causing them! What a fun novel that was
to write. And Angela Lansbury would have
been perfect for the role!