I have sent my second manuscript to iUniverse. However, I got it back, made some changes and sent it again for review. This manuscript is the body of a mystery, which will be the 14th book in the Buck Jaspers mystery series. It is based on an apocryphal story from the Bible. Releasing a manuscript to the publisher is akin to letting a friend move on. I feel I have done all I can do. Now someone else should see…..
I had volunteered to work again the next morning after clearing the parking spaces, but I forgot that if one uses muscles he hasn’t used in a while, he will be sore. When I woke the next morning, I was sore all over, and I had blisters on both feet and my right hand even though I had worn gloves. I had to beg off and let my body rest and recover. That day my neighbors began returning. First were…..
When I arrived at my apartment, I found a tree down in my front yard. It had missed my porch by four feet. When I went into my apartment, I found that it had escaped without a lick of damage. However, I had no electricity and it was stifling inside without air-conditioning, so I stripped down to my boxer shorts and then opened all three windows—the bedroom and living room windows facing east and the kitchen window facing north—pulled up…..
The advent of Hurricane Irma combined with the start of the fall term at the college knocked me off my usual schedule. What follows is the sequence of events. 1. After one week of tutoring in the new Learning Commons, followed by Labor Day, Hurricane Irma arrived, so the next week I worked only two days: Tuesday and Wednesday. The college was closed beginning Thursday. I had thought I might drive to a safer community, but when I saw how…..
Sigrid is in many ways a more traditional Lutheran than Luther is. Luther takes his religion for granted until it is endangered by Nazism, but Sigrid always held to the tenets of her faith because she believes them to be true and representative of Germany. However, she is unlike many German women of those days in that she thinks for herself and doesn’t go along with the trending national socialism. She is akin to Marlene Dietrich, who rejected Goebbels’s offer…..
During August, I went on vacation. First, I flew from Miami to Denver and was driven to Colorado Springs to visit my son Jerry. Besides seeing him and his wife Heather (and their two cats Charly and Harly), the other highlights were Visiting the rock formations and rock climbers at the Garden of the Gods. Viewing Rogue One Star Trek with the family. Visiting a legal marijuana store: Emerald City in Manitou Springs. Eating Rocky Mountain rainbow brook trout. Eating…..
Why include scenes of decadence in a book about a Christian doctor? A novel needs an arc provided by the plot, and in a historical novel, the plot must be driven by the realities of the times. In 1918 the Germans lost the war, and the Treaty of Versailles humiliated them and made economic recovery harder than it might have been. During the 1920s, one reaction to the loss and hard times was a surrender to pleasures, including inebriation, drug…..
Once again, the effort and commitment of Go! Latinos magazine to the community of South Florida is recognized. In a formal ceremony with the presence of The Miami Dade County School Board and the Superintendent of Schools Mr. Alberto Carvhalo, Dr. Lawrence Feldman, Chairperson of the Board, presented the proclamation to Executive Director Ervin Palacios and co-founder Berta López. The presentation of such an honorable award took place at the Miami School Board building in downtown Miami. During his presentation,…..
Since the hero of the story is a Christian, that Biblical scripture would appear in the story is not unexpected. The first scripture that appears in the story is The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus spoke to the multitudes. Luther’s father frames the Beatitudes and hangs them above the headboard of his son’s bed. These essential teachings from Jesus about all the ordinary people who would be blessed profoundly affected young Luther who probably read them…..
Just as I had done for music of the 1920s and 1930s, I researched which movies young people would be viewing at the theaters. This was an interesting time because the early 20th century was dominated by the silver screen silent movies. No sound, black and white. However, the first talkies were introduced in 1927, so in 1929 when Luther went to study in Bonn, he would have had a mixture of silent films and talkies to watch. He saw…..