Since I’ve added a new book to the site—Vorak of Kolnap—I thought I would indulge myself and give a bit of a guide to the site. I’ve done this before, so it it’s old hat to you, skip it.
I started this site to promote my unpublished if not unpublishable fiction, but that old mutatis mutandis thing took over—I had a dedicated band of about seven readers, plus the ebook thing was coming along, plus President Obama was turning himself into Cheney Light, so now I’ve rearranged things, going the self-publishing route for my fiction and fixing up this site for both continuing commentary and self-promotion. So this is what you’ll find.
If you go to the left-hand column and click on “About,” you’ll see a dismayingly large picture of me looking fairly goofy, as is my wont, along with a touch of self-description.
If you click on “Books,” you’ll get links to my two ebook/print on demand novels, Vorak of Kolnap and Author! Author! Vorak is a sci-fi thriller, while Author! Author! is a collection of two short stories and one novella, each featuring a famous author as a lead character—W. H. Auden, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Updike, to name them. There is also a link to my free ebook, Three Bullets: A New Nero Wolfe Threesome, as well as links to my two “dead tree” books, Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra and Sherlock Holmes and the Hapsburg Tiara. You can also access sample passages from the five books.
If you click on “Reviews,” you can access movie reviews I’ve written for the Bright Lights film Journal reviewing all the films of Charlie Chaplin and all the musical films of Fred Astaire. The “Links” page, which needs some expanding, lets you access all the other reviews I’ve done for Bright Lights, as well as the site itself.
“Topics” is the not terribly snappy title I’ve come up with for longer pieces that I’ve run in the past—ranging from takedowns of Flannery O’Connor (not as great as some people say, in my opinion) to a partial guide to jazz albums dedicated to the compositions of Thelonious Monk. In keeping with my affection for jazz, I run a jazz video every week, usually focusing on the compositions of, yes, Thelonious Monk. If you want to find all the jazz videos I’ve featured, well, click on “Jazz.”
