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SOME THOUGHTS ON ATLANTA’S FLURRYJAM 2014
Okay, “Flurryjam” is a bit snarky. It was more than a flurry. In fact, for the South, it was a legit snowstorm: two inches officially. But here’s the thing: Should a two-inch snowstorm–well forecast, I might add–bring absolute gridlock to the ninth largest metro area in the country? Drivers abandoning cars, people trapped in parking…
Read MoreWHAT I DON’T LIKE ABOUT E-READERS
I’m pretty much enamored with my e-reader, a Nook that I’ve had for a little over three years. I don’t read exclusively on it, but I’d guess 85 to 90 percent of all the books I buy are in e-format. Recently, however, I had a bit of an epiphany. I realized there’s something I don’t…
Read MoreSO JUST WHEN IS “TORNADO SEASON”?
Weather-savvy folks are aware that North Atlantic hurricanes have an officially-defined season: June 1 through November 30. Most, but not all, hurricanes and tropical storms whirl to life within that 6-month period. There is, however, no counterpart for tornadoes. Twisters can and do spin up at any time of year with the threat peaking in…
Read MoreMY CHRISTMAS LIST FOR THRILLER READERS–PART 2
Here’s the second part of a post I began last week in which I listed a few thriller/suspense novels that have stuck with me over the years. In Part 1, I mentioned books authored by Frederick Forsyth, Nelson DeMille, Alan Furst and Robert Wilson. In this blog I’ll talk about Cormac McCarthy, James Lee Burke…
Read MoreMY CHRISTMAS LIST FOR THRILLER READERS–PART 1
Just what you needed, right? Another Christmas list. Well, it isn’t for me. It’s for you. And I’m kind of thinking post-Christmas as opposed to Reindeer Express stuff. That is, I thought it might be fun to toss out a few ideas just in case you find a new Nook or Kindle under your tree (of…
Read MoreMY OWN LITTLE LITERARY FIEFDOM
A good friend of mine who is also an author and publisher recently suggested that traditional thrillers, à la Plague, were my real forte, as opposed to the “tight” sub-genre of weather thrillers in which he viewed me as being “trapped.” His comments came in the wake of a couple of successes by Plague: being…
Read MoreGLOBAL WARMING: THE NEW POPULAR BOOGEYMAN
DID GLOBAL WARMING TRIGGER THE DEADLY NOVEMBER TORNADO OUTBREAK? Certainly the devastating tornado outbreak of Sunday, November 17, will go down as one of the worst November onslaughts on record . . . but not the worst, at least in terms of the number of tornadoes. (It will be in 4th place.) The image below…
Read MoreHow I Almost Blew It With BLIZZARD
You’d think after three novels I’d know the “rules.” (Actually, as NYT best-selling author Steve Berry likes to say about his ten rules of writing, the number one rule is “There are no rules.”) So let’s just call them guidelines. I actually do know the guidelines, but I managed to ignore one of the most…
Read MoreEast Coast snowstorm?
Allow me to back off from blogging about writing and books for a moment. There’s an interesting dilemma brewing for weather forecasters in the Eastern U. S. (Thankfully, I’m retired and really don’t have to worry about such things anymore. Now I’m just a strap-hanger and kibitzer . . . and blogger.) Here’s what’s going…
Read MoreThink EYEWALL Without the Ocean
“Uh oh,” I said to myself, after reading an email from an old friend of mine who lives in the Pacific Northwest. “This could be a problem.” My friend, Barbara, like me, grew up in western Oregon where thunderstorms are few and far between, and supercells—the most violent of all thunderstorms, the kind that spit…
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