Roy L. Pickering Jr.'s Blog, page 32

Short Story Sunday - Part II

A married couple endures trials, tribulations and greasy food on the road to becoming adoptive parents.


Diner French Fries at Two in the Morning

By Roy L. Pickering Jr.
Copyright held by Roy L. Pickering Jr.




Fred absentmindedly flipped through the selection of songs on the tableside jukebox in their diner booth. His wife Arlene made random patterns in the splotch of ketchup on her plate with a French fry. They had mostly avoided eye contact since placing their orders, kept conversation to a bare min

The Jam

In honor of basketball, a sport I love no matter how poorly my Knicks have done over the past several years, I've selected "The Jam" to be the first short story to appear on this blog as part of my Short Story Sunday series. Early birds will be able to find a new tale here at A Line A Day by early evening every Sunday for however long this endeavor runs. Others may opt to hold off so they'll have a new piece of fiction to get the work week started right on their Monday morning commutes. Whenver

Short Story Sunday

On my wife's suggestion I have decided to create Short Story Sunday at "A Line A Day". Each Sunday I will post one of my short stories here. Comments are welcomed and encouraged. I'm very excited about this idea and can't wait to get started. The spacing of my blog posts has been rather erratic to date, and I tend to bop around from subject to subject, but now I will be posting on no less frequent than a weekly basis with a consistent feature. BEA weekend seems an especially appropriate time to

Book Review for PATCHES OF GREY

They're starting to come in, slowly but surely. So far the critics have been kind and had plenty of positive things to say. If I wasn't so darn humble (written with tongue firmly in cheek) I'd be tempted to call the review by Randall Radic of Alvah's Books a rave. After all, it does contain phrases such as "he’s one heck of a writer" and "the guy can really write" and "Roy Pickering’s talent is astonishing and ignores every precedent". I also found Rancic's plot summary to be dead on the mark -

I'm not Mr. PC...

But can we please get rid of sports team names that offend entire segments of society, most often Native Americans. It isn't as if they have not complained and put forth strenuous efforts through our court system to halt this practice. Yet inexplicably these attempts have come up short. Today the Washington Redskins, a team with a horiffic name inspired by the complexion of a race of people, no less offensive than the Rednecks or the Darkies, won another legal victory in a 17-year fight with a g

Can elation of victory surpass thrill of chase?

An intriguing thought dawned on me today, a question asked of myself that I'm not sure I have a definitive answer for. Is the thrill of the chase a superior feeling to the elation experienced by the victory desperately hoped for? I found myself wondering if this was so as I reflected on the fact that I gave up being an active baseball fan a few years after the ultimate moment of fandom triumph when the Mets won the World Series in 1986. Throughout the 1970's, not getting into baseball until afte

Free Excerpts & Chance To Win Free Book

Just thought I'd post a reminder on Tax Day that with April now half over there are only a couple weeks left to enter the lottery for chance to win a free copy of Patches of Grey at GoodReads.com. I'd also like to make everyone aware of the web page I just set up on Good Reads where authors will be posting excerpts from their published and in progress books. If you're trying to decide what to read next or perhaps getting your summer beach read list in order, the passages found there might help

Confessions of a Sports Fanatic

I am addicted to sports, this I proudly confess. There is no way to calculate how much time I have spent over the four + decades of my life absorbed in a contest between world class athletes. Back when there seemed to be only two teams to root for in the NFL (three if you include the Raiders who attracted those with a rebellious streak), I opted to cheer for the hard working Pittsburgh Steelers over America's Team - the glamorous Dallas Cowboys. I did admire the latter's cheerleading squad thoug

Brief excerpt from first draft of novel in progress - MATTERS OF CONVENIENCE

I still have a while to go before completing the first draft of Matters of Convenience (must improve my discipline, must make more time to work on it no matter how hectic my days may be), to be followed by substantial editing that will no doubt be required over who knows how many subsequent drafts. Upon feeling satisfied with it (if such a state of grace actually exists) I will get back on the proverbial horse and head off towards the sunset where high power literary agents and major publishing

The Princess and the "Controversy"

The announcement made on this web page was of interest to me (which is why my wife forwarded it), but what I found truly fascinating was the reader discussion it sparked. The writer purposely worded the final paragraph of his announcement to stir up some controversy and clearly succeeded. Check out what a variety of people had to say about Disney's daring "casting" choices for The Princess and the Frog, then read below for my response to the responses.


First off, the Disney movie factory is all a