My obsession began back in high school when I had to write one of those dreaded term papers. Except for me, of course, it wasn’t so dreaded. I actually liked writing term papers (while my friends groaned), especially when I came across fascinating books like The Day Lincoln Was Shot by Jim Bishop. If you think history is boring, you haven’t read a book like this one. (And if you’re new to the Lincoln conspiracy, this is a good place to start.) Amazon describes Bishop’s book as a “gripping, minute-by-minute account of the day President Lincoln was struck down by an assassin’s bullet in Ford’s Theatre. Parallels of the activities of the President with those of his assassin in an unforgettable, suspense-filled chronicle.” That’s a very accurate description. The first chapter is “7:00 a.m.” on April 14, 1865, and the last is “7:00 a.m.” on April 15, 1865, after Lincoln passed…
Read more
Did you hear the latest on J.K. Rowling, the forty-seven-year-old best-selling author of the Harry Potter series? She wrote a crime novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, and did something sneaky. She published it under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, and pretended to be “a former plainclothes military policeman who had left the Army in 2003 to work in the private security industry” (The Telegraph). It’s perfectly logical why Rowling would use such deception. Imagine being such a successful author and trying to publish something after Harry Potter fame. Anything less successful would be a major letdown. She said, “Being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience. It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation, and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name” (The Telegraph). Later, she added, “Being Robert Galbraith has been all about the work, which is my favorite part of being a writer . . .…
Read more
Exactly a week ago, my father-in-law and I tackled a two-day project to cover the old basement floor of my home office with a product called DRIcore subfloor. Last Friday, I blogged about the history of the home office and detailed the ongoing struggle to keep the floor painted and dry. I finally concluded that based on counsel from others, DRIcore appeared to be the best product for me. The fact of life is that for many older basements (our basement floor was poured in 1926) there simply is no easy way to eliminate all moisture. As the DRIcore website says, “98 % of basements will have a moisture problem.” Lifting my house and pouring a new basement floor simply isn’t an option for me, and running a dehumidifier around the clock is costly as well. The benefit of DRIcore is that it actually raises the floor by about three-quarters of an…
Read more
The summer of 2006 is one I’ll never forget. Fresh off a layoff, I was working FedEx and editing a few projects, hoping to find enough work to stay home and not have to sell our circa. 1926 house and move. At the same time, my parents and my wife’s parents came alongside and decided to help. And help they did. We had an eyesore of an old basement rec room that needed a complete overhaul for me to claim it as “home office” and location for my freelance writing. lt was a very hot summer, and I set up my editing and writing workstation on the dining room table. I worked there after FedEx and between projects tackling that old rec room and converting it into a home office. Frankly, it’s not a a summer I’d want to do over again, but God sustained us. In fact, He provided everything…
Read more
