• Thoughts

    A Speck of Light

    I still look at my old stuff, hoping to find a glittering speck that lights the way to something new. This morning, I pulled out the second post from Collecting Thoughts Press and remembered that I once wrote about a…

  • Thoughts

    Person or Commodity?

    When I look back at my writing, I notice common themes, and while in the past, it bothered me, because it seemed like I was unable to move forward or entertain an original thought, I no longer feel that way.…

  • Thoughts

    Which Character are You?

    Once in a while, I remind myself that I used to get frustrated with people who wouldn’t hand out answers like candy. I liked the sound of this: “Literature leaves you with questions; lesser works give you all the answers,”…

  • Thoughts

    The Old and the Novel

    The notion of a path or journey to describes one’s life is a bit overused, so I’ve made a conscious effort to avoid such a metaphor. The problem is that I have yet to find one that works as well.…

  • Thoughts

    Roughly Recognized

    According to Gary Saul Morson in Hidden in Plain View, “In the early reviews of War and Peace, objections were raised most frequently against the plot. ‘This disordered heap of accumulated material,’ as one reviewer called it, was perceived as…

  • Poetry

    You Can’t Take this Away

    There was a time when I was writing lots of poetry. Then, the motivation waned. It waxes again on occasion, and I thought it would be nice to collect what I have written and what I might write here at…

  • Thoughts

    My Own Thing

    How often do I change my mind, my outlook, my convictions? Yes, my convictions. If I don’t blindly hold onto a belief my entire life, it doesn’t mean that I am a moral relativist, and if I don’t keep up…

  • Thoughts

    Is It a Good Expression?

    That question—the title of this post—was asked in an instructional video presented by a successful photographer. He was going through a list he uses to evaluate images: the making of them, along with the finished product. It’s an interesting query…

  • Thoughts

    To and Fro

    Writing used to be an important part of my day. What role does it play in my life now? What kind of influence do I want it to have? The more time I spend reading, the more fodder I gain…

  • Thoughts

    What Does Anybody Know?

    I once worked with a guy who had flown Lear Jets before trading that career for a more mundane one at a quasi-governmental agency. I asked him why he stopped flying, and he told me about a saying among pilots:…