Gridley Fires Books

06/07/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/07/06/chapbooks-and-the-small-press-wars/

As promised, a few words about poetry chapbooks generated from within my fevered brow. But first I need to mention that my now-defunct publishing company did in fact put out a couple of chapbooks b…

06/07/2024

As promised, a few words about poetry chapbooks generated from within my fevered brow. But first I need to mention that my now-defunct publishing company did in fact put out a couple of chapbooks by other writers in its 6-year run. What??!? Only two publications in 6 years? Afraid so - - but there were also a few publications of my own in the Gridley Fires Books catalog....

As promised, a few words about poetry chapbooks generated from within my fevered brow. But first I need to mention that my now-defunct publishing company did in fact put out a couple of chapbooks b…

30/06/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/06/30/the-geometry-thing/

Interlaced among the last three or so of these works of fiction are my four “volumes” on geometry. If you are among those who, like my high school classmates, run screaming at the menti…

30/06/2024

Interlaced among the last three or so of these works of fiction are my four "volumes" on geometry. If you are among those who, like my high school classmates, run screaming at the mention of this subject, I don't blame you. Or you may be of the New Agey persuasion, having a somewhat vague handle of the subject as Sacred Geometry....

Interlaced among the last three or so of these works of fiction are my four “volumes” on geometry. If you are among those who, like my high school classmates, run screaming at the menti…

23/06/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/06/23/an-overlong-short-story/

A House in the Neighborhood For anyone who has been anticipating my complete book accounting, I apologize. I’ve moved yet again, and this move has been a toughie. But to the task at hand: The…

23/06/2024

A House in the Neighborhood For anyone who has been anticipating my complete book accounting, I apologize. I've moved yet again, and this move has been a toughie. But to the task at hand: The above book was panned on Kirkus Reviews, somewhat unfairly, I think. Still, it wasn't my best effort. But I maintain it wasn't all that bad. The novella attempts a very modern story during the Age of COVID....

A House in the Neighborhood For anyone who has been anticipating my complete book accounting, I apologize. I’ve moved yet again, and this move has been a toughie. But to the task at hand: The…

18/05/2024

Gerbert's Book A friend at the time suggested I look up a certain historical figure - one who had a lasting impact on the history of the western world. So I did, surprised to find volumes of information about this man, he now pretty much lost to history. As a boy, Gerbert, this son of a French peasant family so impressed a person of royalty that he ended up in Spain, where he received the best education possible in the Europe of the 970s....

Gerbert’s Book A friend at the time suggested I look up a certain historical figure – one who had a lasting impact on the history of the western world. So I did, surprised to find volum…

11/05/2024

The Third Reich's Last Eagle One day my dad, who served in the European theater of WWII, handed me a book. "What's this?" I asked. "Just read it," he said in his charming way. A man who had been a corporal under dad during the conflict had subsequently gained a commission, had risen to colonel, and after retirement had written the book....

The Third Reich’s Last Eagle One day my dad, who served in the European theater of WWII, handed me a book. “What’s this?” I asked. “Just read it,” he said in his…

01/05/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/05/01/one-last-shot-across-the-bow/

I know, I more or less signed off this blog – – and I will continue the odyssey through my writing/publishing career. But One Thing deserves to be said again today. This One Thing has i…

01/05/2024

I know, I more or less signed off this blog - - and I will continue the odyssey through my writing/publishing career. But One Thing deserves to be said again today. This One Thing has its birth in a latest issue of Publishers Weekly magazine. Although I've terminated my publishing arm, I still have a subscription, and in a latest issue, the mag has an article proclaiming that Big Publishing's sales or down, where they've been for, well, since before COVID....

I know, I more or less signed off this blog – – and I will continue the odyssey through my writing/publishing career. But One Thing deserves to be said again today. This One Thing has i…

28/04/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/04/28/baseball-magic-and-insanity/

Collateral Damage, and Stories I had a surplus of stories, and after Sam’s Place sold fairly well, I thought to ask Mike Aloisi if he’d like to see another batch. Nothing ventured, noth…

28/04/2024

Collateral Damage, and Stories I had a surplus of stories, and after Sam's Place sold fairly well, I thought to ask Mike Aloisi if he'd like to see another batch. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Admittedly, he didn't sound too enthused at the prospect. He'd put out quite a bit of cash on Sam, but he did ask to see what I had....

Collateral Damage, and Stories I had a surplus of stories, and after Sam’s Place sold fairly well, I thought to ask Mike Aloisi if he’d like to see another batch. Nothing ventured, noth…

23/04/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/04/23/my-old-alabama-family-stories/

While I was writing those early novels to little acclaim and quite a bit of frustration, I was also writing short stories. I had in the back of my mind a collection of some sort. This was in the & #…

23/04/2024

While I was writing those early novels to little acclaim and quite a bit of frustration, I was also writing short stories. I had in the back of my mind a collection of some sort. This was in the "early oughts" of the new century, and I had been a writer-in-residence at NC's Peace College under the famous Doris Betts' guiding hand....

While I was writing those early novels to little acclaim and quite a bit of frustration, I was also writing short stories. I had in the back of my mind a collection of some sort. This was in the & #…

20/04/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/04/20/searching-for-the-truth/

After my experiences with my first two books, you’d likely understand that I felt my writing skills were buried in my imagination, filed under “wishful thinking.” So I set out to …

20/04/2024

After my experiences with my first two books, you'd likely understand that I felt my writing skills were buried in my imagination, filed under "wishful thinking." So I set out to seek the truth in that regard. Another piece of new writing would surely bare that. I decided a short story or essay wasn't going to do the job for me, and it seemed unnecessary to write a full-tilt novel....

After my experiences with my first two books, you’d likely understand that I felt my writing skills were buried in my imagination, filed under “wishful thinking.” So I set out to …

15/04/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/04/15/fool-me-twice/

As I was working/waiting to sell the first novel, I began research and writing on the second. (Btw, writing novels at that tender age seems in retrospect a lot easier than now – – from …

15/04/2024

As I was working/waiting to sell the first novel, I began research and writing on the second. (Btw, writing novels at that tender age seems in retrospect a lot easier than now - - from beginning of writing to end of first edit was about ten months.) I had already contacted my agent, advising her that this one was to be a mystery genre story, too, and she tentatively promised me a contract, given that it was up to her standards....

As I was working/waiting to sell the first novel, I began research and writing on the second. (Btw, writing novels at that tender age seems in retrospect a lot easier than now – – from …

11/04/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com

A Blog for writers, readers, and other curious people - - and perhaps an occasional word or two to mark the way forward

11/04/2024

Ever see those guys in Acapulco swan into a dive from the cliffs, disappearing in a bloop 135 feet below? Ever considered trying it yourself? That's a bit like taking on writing a novel. Of course, you don't know that until you're 100 pages in and all balled up in character conflicts and subplots. That's way so many wannabe writers talk a good game but never get around to that deep literary dive....

Ever see those guys in Acapulco swan into a dive from the cliffs, disappearing in a bloop 135 feet below? Ever considered trying it yourself? That’s a bit like taking on writing a novel. Of c…

09/04/2024

https://bobmust.wordpress.com/2024/04/09/nothing-like-starting-over/

I hesitate to write that I’m done. Age is creeping by at something more than a turtle’s pace, and I’ve long since seen youth disappear in my rear view mirror. I’m currently …

09/04/2024

I hesitate to write that I'm done. Age is creeping by at something more than a turtle's pace, and I've long since seen youth disappear in my rear view mirror. I'm currently engaged in moving back to North Carolina and entering a retirement community. That's the modern euphemism for what was once called an "old folks' home." I'm doing this before nature forces me there....

I hesitate to write that I’m done. Age is creeping by at something more than a turtle’s pace, and I’ve long since seen youth disappear in my rear view mirror. I’m currently …

07/04/2024

This morning after a leisurely Sunday breakfast I settled into a podcast during which two men whose opinions I don't always give two-thumbs-up to, but whom I find I have respect enough to consider, were talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They weren't taking sides, nor am I in this writing, Their consensus was that from cradle to grave people there of both persuasions were programmed by parents, religious personages, and government officials to hate the other....

This morning after a leisurely Sunday breakfast I settled into a podcast during which two men whose opinions I don’t always give two-thumbs-up to, but whom I find I have respect enough to con…

20/02/2024

The author of The Comanche Kid, James Robert Daniels, began a chapter with the below passage. Notice the sensory appeal to touch - heat, and at paragraphs end, the metaphor of the prairie aflame. To make the sense of touch more tangible he adds the effect of the wind. Then there's the visual effect of the flowers waving. You don't have to know the flowers' colors to sense their presence here, and these effects on the narrator....

The author of The Comanche Kid, James Robert Daniels, began a chapter with the below passage. Notice the sensory appeal to touch – heat, and at paragraphs end, the metaphor of the prairie afl…

20/02/2024

The Comanche Kid, by James Robert Daniels See, here's the reason I read the lesser known authors and from the small presses. I'm in the process of trying to sell a manuscript of mine set in the not-yet-domesticated midwest and southwest of the 1880s, and I thought I'd better read something similar, just to, you know, see how well I did....

The Comanche Kid, by James Robert Daniels See, here’s the reason I read the lesser known authors and from the small presses. I’m in the process of trying to sell a manuscript of mine se…

15/01/2024

A Dweller on Two Planets Or, The Dividing of the Way, by Phylos the Thibetan Yes, this book is as odd and arcane as the above title and author suggest. I happened on it during my current preoccupation with the supposed sunken continent of Atlantis, a fascination I'll soon lay by. But for the moment, indulge me, for this one is far stranger than anything I've so far turned up about that mystical land....

A Dweller on Two Planets Or, The Dividing of the Way, by Phylos the Thibetan Yes, this book is as odd and arcane as the above title and author suggest. I happened on it during my current preoccupat…

06/01/2024

I'm currently reading a book that I shall post on soon, but I want to remark on one of its core aspects now so as not to distract from the review later. The first novels in English, published as early as the young 1700s – Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, and Don Quixote, for instance – were written stylistically worlds apart from modern works....

I’m currently reading a book that I shall post on soon, but I want to remark on one of its core aspects now so as not to distract from the review later. The first novels in English, published…

04/01/2024

03/01/2024

What a year 'twenty-three was! I had moved back to Georgia after two decades in North Carolina – at the behest of my step-kids. I'm old, they said, you need to be nearby so we can make sure you're taken care of. Well, I didn't feel so old until I undertook an interstate move to a near-twenty year-old house in the Georgia forests, the house in need of some serious TLC....

What a year ‘twenty-three was! I had moved back to Georgia after two decades in North Carolina – at the behest of my step-kids. I’m old, they said, you need to be nearby so we can make …

23/12/2023

Inner Engineering – A Yogi's Guide to Joy, by Sadhguru I held this book aside for almost a year before reading it, determined to tie up this particular loose end before the beginning of 2024. But first, by way of explanation regarding the nature of India's holy personages. They are not religious people as we in the West know the type....

Inner Engineering – A Yogi’s Guide to Joy, by Sadhguru I held this book aside for almost a year before reading it, determined to tie up this particular loose end before the beginning of 2024.…