Mythology is a fascinating subject. The elders of every culture create stories that explains their view of the world to themselves. They pass those views and stories on to their descendents and the children incorporate or revise those stories to suit their own world view. An observant human can trace the changes of a civilization by reviewing the variations in a myth. As cultures go, the American one is still fai...
There is something special about a Southern Mama. I used to explain it by saying I moved to Alabama because, “I married a Southern Boy. And Southern Boys don’t get too far away from their mamas.” That usually got a laugh because, on one level, it’s true. Southern mothers are strong women and their children respond to that strength. These women have raised generations of kids who know...
Writers steal, that’s a fact. You can call it an homage, revisionism or Fried Wild Peacock, but the fact is the roots of almost every popular written work can be traced to some other writer’s creation or an event the writer experienced. What makes the work interesting is what happens to the source material once the writer pushes it through the filter of his or her imagination. That’s when you ge...
Some books are like a vacation. Open the covers, look at the first paragraph and you’re on your way to some exotic location, away from the everyday grind. You can go hunting with Hemingway, rafting with Twain or sailing with Thor Heyerdahl. Those vacations are wonderful, but come along with me to the South of France. You won’t have to pack a bag or learn the language but you must bring along your sens...
There are a lot of genres in crime fiction. There are cozy mysteries and hard-boiled detective tales, capers and whodunits. There are police procedurals, legal thrillers, psychological suspense books and we’ll have some more genres next Tuesday. In the meantime, one of my current favorite writers is Val McDermid, the journalist who created what she calls “Scottish Noir”. This means her ch...