Bob's Journal

Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We'll need writers who can remember freedom - poets, visionaries - realists of a larger reality.  Read more

What happens when a well-known children's book author switches genres after decades of writing fantasy and historical fiction for middle grade and young adult readers? Kathryn Lasky the award-winning children's book author is doing just that.  Read more

Why do some murder mysteries sell more copies than others? There are countless possible explanations. I'd like to focus on one: the impossibility of the murder. Perhaps the most recognizable example of an impossible murder is the locked-room mystery. But there are infinite possibilities.  Read more

When I set out to write a thriller in which my protagonist was in mortal peril no later than the end of the first paragraph, I knew I wanted to include something about the Enigma machine, the encoding device used by the Axis during World War II, and about the successful British effort to break the supposedly unbreakable Enigma code which took place at Bletchley Park.  Read more

In a novel, an effective setting transports the reader, immersing them in the narrative and creating a believable physical environment where plot can flourish.  Read more