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SO WHAT ABOUT THIS EBOLA BUSINESS?
The deadly Ebola virus has been making headlines recently, especially in Atlanta, Georgia, where two Ebola victims from western Africa will be placed in an isolation unit at Emory University Hospital. Emory, by the way, is adjacent to the main campus of the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC. Some people are quite concerned that we now…
Read MoreYEA THOUGH I WALK
Darrell Huckaby is a retired educator, renown columnist, accomplished author, Southern humorist, lay speaker in the Methodist church, and one heck of a good storyteller. He also has Stage 4 metastatic prostate disease, cancer, for which there is no cure. YEA THOUGH I WALK is Darrell’s story of his battle with that disease. It’s a…
Read MoreMY SUMMER TO-READ LIST
Ever wonder what a thriller writer reads? I obviously can’t answer for every such author, but here’s my to-read list for the next few months. I don’t know if publishers deliberately target this time of year for big releases, but it certainly appears that way, at least this year. To me, it seems like the…
Read MoreA WRITER/METEOROLOGIST’S REVIEW OF SUPERCELL
As many of you know, I’m a meteorologist in novelist’s clothing. (Or is it the other way around?) Well, whatever. I majored in atmospheric science in college and took a couple of courses in creative writing. I think I did fairly well in them (it was a long time ago), even though I recall being…
Read MoreTHOUGHTS ON CRITIQUE GROUPS
In a recent blog, I discussed the importance to a novice writer, one with aspirations of becoming professionally published, of not trying to learn the craft in isolation. I strongly recommended interacting with other writers. One of the most common ways of doing this is to become part of a critique group. There are some…
Read MoreTHE BIGGEST MISTAKE BEGINNING WRITERS MAKE
There is an abundance of guidance available–books, blogs, hand-outs–that illuminate the steps or “rules” to becoming a successful writer. Be warned, however, as NYT Best-Selling Author Steve Berry says, “The first rule is, there are no rules.” Similarly, there’s a plethora of material out there for novice writers, whether wannabe novelists or nonfiction authors, that…
Read MoreA ONE IN TWENTY-MILLION CHANCE–The True Story of the First Tornado Forecast–Part III
PART III After General Borum’s statement that Captain Miller and Major Fawbush were “about to set a precedent,” Fawbush composed the forecast–what would now be called a tornado warning (albeit one with a long lead-time)–Miller typed it up and handed it off to Base Operations for dissemination. Both men sensed their careers circling the…
Read MoreA ONE IN TWENTY-MILLION CHANCE–The True Story of the First Tornado Forecast–Part II
PART II On the morning of March 25, 1948, based on their hurried research, Captain Miller and Major Fawbush noted a significant similarity between the weather charts for that day and March 20, the date of the Tinker tornado. The two forecasters prepared a hand-drawn prognostic chart (computerized progs were still far in…
Read MoreA ONE IN TWENTY-MILLION CHANCE–The True Story of the First Tornado Forecast–Part I
In the mid-20th century, tornado forecasting was considered to be beyond the “state of the art,” or in other words, impossible. Twisters were deemed acts of God. And any meteorologist attempting to predict what the Almighty had in mind would have been labeled a fool, a charlatan, or a court jester. Maybe worse. Yet two…
Read MoreMY NAME IS BUZZ. I’M A WEATHERHOLIC.
My name is Buzz. I’m a weatherholic. There, I said it. I’m supposed to be retired. Kicking back. Taking it easy. Writing novels. But no. Every time “big weather” looms, I’m geeking out, studying progs, kibitzing with other “addicts,” and [GULP] making forecasts. Why can’t I get this monkey off my back? Well, I suppose…
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