May 20
Excerpt:
“Like many other young men, I mythologized guns and the ideas of manhood associated with them.
The gun lobby likes to say guns don’t kill people, people do. And they’re right, of course. I killed my friend; no one else did; no mechanism did. But this oversimplifies matters (as does the gun control advocates’ position that eliminating weapons will end violent crime).”
For the full article, click here: nytimes.com
May 20
Excerpt:
DA: Tell us about your interest with the force of the Western myth.
BH: It’s a love-hate relationship. I grew up surrounded by the myth, but uncomfortable with it as well. The West distrusts speech and intellect, other than what’s practical. It leaves action and, hence, violence as the only way to express one’s self and remain a man. One of mythology’s functions is to instruct its adherents how to function in the world. The rituals and rites are all part of that training. The Western myth teaches men, instead, how to behave in a way that guarantees bad marriages, jail, and a devastating isolation. Violence as a moral force is both admired and punished. Old men sit around recounting their crimes with glee and the boys listening later walk around behaving like a Clint Eastwood character from the spaghetti westerns. The Western myth grew too quickly to develop a moral center. Absence, emptiness, and violence are its morality without the reflection necessary to separate what is selfish from what is justified.
For the full interview, click here: servinghousejournal.com
Posted on:
May 20, 2013
May 20
Excerpt:
Why do you write?
I write because I’m curious about all the beauty of this world and want to name it and to draw it toward me. I write to create a sense of palpable intimacy with my readers, by saying, “This is who I am, what I think and feel and value, but who are you?”
I write, too, out of the memorial urge, to name those I’ve loved and have lost, including both the parents I lost before age ten, also the brother I mentioned before. My latest book is about the dogs we’ve had, the places I’ve walked those dogs, what home is, and the friends I’ve made on either coast because, in part, of our shared love of animals. I write to remember what I don’t want forgotten.
I write, too, to offer hope: it is possible, with luck, to survive as tragic a childhood as my own and to find the work you love to do and the people you want to do it with. I write to say it’s entirely likely that as a writer you can construct your own happy ending, as I have sought to do. I write because I want to and indeed, because I must and because writing brings me so much of the joy I know.
For the full Q&A session, click here: w3sidecar.tumblr.com
May 20
Excerpt:
“This is a great jumping off point for anyone trying to teach the history of this important battle. Discussing what Daniel saw, what he didn’t see and why they are fighting, all serves to bring the significant details into view. I highly recommend this as a companion to teaching history to 3rd—6th graders.”
For the full review, click here: soimfifty.blogspot.com
May 20
Excerpt:
“The Freedman and the Pharaoh’s Staff by Lane Heymont is an intriguing blend of historical fiction, the occult, and action drama. At times, it reads almost like science fiction.”
For the full review, click here: citybookreview.com
May 01
Excerpt:
“How did your book, Mandela Was Late, come together?
It wasn’t originally planned as a book. After Seinfeld and my years at Dreamworks, I felt like going back to writing full sentences and started writing lots of essays, articles, and op-ed pieces for newspapers and magazines. After awhile, it just felt like there were some threads that would make the pieces combine into a whole.”
Click here for the full review: wordswithwriters.com
May 01
For the full review, click here: infectedloser.com
May 01
Excerpt:
“Here is a book of 21 light and frothy essays, most of which sitcom writer Peter Mehlman published in high circulation newspapers or magazines over the years. Like the Seinfeld TV series for which he wrote some highly acclaimed episodes, including “Yada, Yada,” which introduced America to the expression that is similar to “and on and on and on,” the essays are amusing, deal with the periphery of life’s more real concerns, and are hard to recall with any precision a day or so later.”
For the full review, click here: sdjewishworld.com
May 01
Check out the full guest post here: everyfreechance.com