The novelist is in the enviable position of inhabiting more than one world at a time. In the last year, I have inhabited at least three worlds besides my own. The first is the world of a hippie commune in Iowa in 1970—plus a flashback to the world of a World War II soldier. The second is the contemporary world of a 30-year- old accountant looking for a way to give back. And the third is the world of a young family and a Tibetan trader in 2061, when life as we know it has been replaced by something very new—and very old.
Here they are, all three, just waiting for you to explore them. Welcome to my worlds!
Adventures of a Wannabe Hippie: A Novella
Maybe you miss the sixties—or maybe you missed them. This lively story follows a somewhat clueless college grad who left the straight and narrow in 1970, looking for what she missed while she was sitting in classrooms and her peers were…otherwise engaged.
Making a Difference: A Story of Practical Compassion
Sooner or later, most people want to make a difference. Even little things count. Sometimes, though, we get the message that there’s more we could be doing. Jim is living a good life—not too much work, time to enjoy the outdoors, a great group of friends, terrific parents, a girlfriend in the wings. But the year he turns 30, one friend is killed working for a charity in Afghanistan and another…
Birthright 2061
The karma of the U.S. has descended. The nation has been crippled by fire and flood, by economic collapse, by EMP attacks, by plague and invasion, by earthquake and volcanic ash. Everything that could happen has happened—except nuclear war. Something has held it back. But what?
Meet Catherine
I wrote my first novel at the age of 10. Not surprisingly, it was short. It was printed by hand on lined school paper, mimeographed (I forget the size of the print run), and hand-cut into pages about 4 or 5 inches square. The cover was made of purple construction paper, and the pages were hole-punched and tied with yellow yarn. The book was about a 10-year- old boy’s visit to a tribe in the Amazon rain forest. I eventually got an M.A. in anthropology . . .
New Blogs
Becoming a Novelist: A Musing on First Novels
A few comments for people who might be interested in the process of writing novels–or maybe even want to write your own: First novels (like I’m really an authority on this) can be very personal. Mine was, anyway. I had… Read moreBecoming a Novelist: A Musing on First Novels
“I Didn’t Know You Were a Novelist!”
Actually, I didn’t either. I didn’t start out to be one–it just kind of happened, over a period of years. There were a number of images running around in my head for a long time, begging me to do something… Read more“I Didn’t Know You Were a Novelist!”
The Miracle of the Absorbent Mind
Yesterday I was quietly enjoying an Indian lunch at my favorite deli when a two-year-old boy caught my attention. Not because he was exceptional, but because he wasn’t. He was a normal little boy having lunch with his mother. He’d… Read moreThe Miracle of the Absorbent Mind