AT LEAST I DIDN’T WAKE UP IN CHINA

I had a strange dream a few nights ago. A really strange dream—unlike any I’d ever had before. Up until that particular night, the dreams I had always involved people I knew or had known. And they usually took place in locations with which I was familiar. But on the night of my bizarre fantasy,…

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I WISH I WERE A BETTER WRITER

For reasons I can’t explain, or even understand, my recent visit to southeastern Alaska’s Misty Fjords triggered a deep emotional response within me. My wife Barbara urged me to write about it before my feelings became lost in my own mists of memory. So I did. I wish I were a better writer. I wish…

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HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU?

Probably the most frequent question I get as an author is, “How long does it take you to write a book?” In truth, I’ve never really put a clock (or a calendar) on my work. But looking back over my last four publications, they are spaced about a year apart. Keep in mind, however, that…

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I’M 88 YEARS OLD AND HAVE NEVER READ A BOOK COVER-TO-COVER

Sometimes the best reviews of my books aren’t reviews at all, but mere acknowledgments that somehow, someway, I changed someone’s life. Maybe just a little, but at least for the better. I got an email recently from a gentleman—I’ll call him Alf (not his real name)—who had signed up for my newsletters. I gotta tell…

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WORLD WAR II AND THE ROCK GROUP “KISS”

It’s surprising, amazing even, the links to today that can snake unexpectedly out of the past. One such connection revealed itself to me as I worked on my new novel DOWN A DARK ROAD. The focus of the novel is based on true events—the discovery of a Nazi death camp, Gunskirchen Lager, in Austria near…

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BIRTHDAYS, DYSLEXIA, GUARDIAN ANGELS, AND FAIRY TALES

You’d think after eight decades I would have figured it out. But here I am, on my 28th birthday and I realize I’m dyslexic. Which, of course, works to my advantage when it comes to birthdays. Maybe I really am 28. At least my mind thinks so even if my body doesn’t. In truth, when…

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JUDAS GOATS AND GERMAN JETS

While my forthcoming novel, Down a Dark Road, isn’t, strictly speaking, part of the When Heroes Flew series, that doesn’t mean it will be devoid of aviation action. Quite the contrary, besides slogging along with a U.S. infantry platoon through Germany and Austria during the closing days of WWII in Europe, you’re going to encounter…

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THE “BALLOON BLOWERS” OF WWII

For those of you familiar with my background, it shouldn’t surprise you that there’s an element of weather history in my newest novel, WHEN HEROES FLEW: THE ROOF OF THE WORLD. In addition to telling the WWII tale of the men who flew the India-China flight path over the Himalaya Mountains in the worst weather…

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A REAL-LIFE FAIRY TALE: THE EPILOGUE

I don’t know if fairy tales are supposed to have epilogues. But since it’s my fairy tale, I get to make the rules. Epilogues allowed. Exactly one year ago today, as I stumbled into my ninth decade of drawing breaths on this planet, I wrote a blog with my views on growing old. I allowed…

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THE FAIRY TALE CONTINUES–BARBARA AND BUZZ

The fairy tale continues. The rise of what I like to think of as Schloss Bernard, my new writer’s studio—my castle—signals the beginning of a new phase of my life. I have a few weeks remaining in Georgia before I, and my Shih-Tzu buddy, Stormy, wing our way west to where the freshly-minted Mrs. Bernard,…

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