Jeffrey K. Walker's Blog, page 21

Paddy Works on the Blog Post

[Kay-Kay and I are battling jaguars and howler monkeys in the wilds of Costa Rica–from our well-appointed rainforest lodge–this Sunday, so I’m republishing a blog post that proved the most popular. I’ll be back with something new soon. Take that as a warning or a promise… either way.] There are few Something-Americans who enjoy their […]

Now We’re Cookin’

Kay-Kay and I have been stream-bingeing A Chef’s Life. This is an endearingly quirky series on PBS—now headed for its sixth season—about Vivian Howard, the daughter of a tobacco farmer from eastern North Carolina who, after meeting her Jewish husband from Chicago while working at a restaurant in New York City, is enticed/bribed back to […]

Writers Writing About Writers Writing

I have two books on the street now and am working on my third. I painted myself into a corner by putting “trilogy” on the cover of the first one, so I’m sort of stuck finishing the third, I guess. Regardless, I’ve sent enough of My Very Own Words into the wild to say with […]

Living in Colonial World

l love HBO’s “Westworld” series. I mean, who can resist all that robot sex and violence? It’s such a thinly disguised metaphor for our alienation and search for authenticity in this age of Runaway Technological Change. Of course, I REALLY love the original 1973 über-cheesy movie version—the one with James Brolin chewing the scenery and […]

Rugby As Life Metaphor

I’m a contrarian. This I know about myself. I should be blogging “Year In Review” or “Top Ten Tofu Recipes for 2018.” That’s what everybody does, right? Which is enough reason for me to do the opposite. As I said, I’m a contrarian. However, the New Year brings flutters of excitement to my mostly under-fluttered […]

You’re Wrong, Paul Krugman

So it’s Christmas Eve. Again? The passage of time does seem cruelly to accelerate the older you get. You’ve all had your fill of Clever and/or Sentimental Christmas Stories by now, so I won’t add to the saccharine overdose—other than to say Merry Christmas, hope your Hanukkah was swell, Happy Kwanzaa, and Festive Festivus. Now […]

Bells and Smells

Considering the seriousness of my post last week—and I’m glad I wrote it—I thought this week I’d address something less weighty while sticking to the general theme of Confession Is Good for the Soul. I am a recovering… altar boy. Being raised in a Catholic family in the ‘60s, I regularly attended Mass. I recall […]

For Loving One Man?

After much hemming and hawing with They Who Writers Must Obey—better known to you as Amazon—my new book, Truly Are the Free, is available in paperback! (You should definitely read it. Immediately. Even at great risk to your personal safety.) And since you’re already at jeffreykwalker.com reading this, check out my redecorated homepage, now starring […]

Two Stiffs Writing Hist Fic (Part the First)

I’ve been batting questions back and forth with fellow historical fiction writer Wayne Turmel, a Canadian-turned-American who’s settled for now in Chicago. Some of the replies have been rather good, so I thought I’d blog them this week. JEFF: Wayne, we both write historical fiction—the similarity seems to end there. I write World War I and 1920s, you write […]

On Epigraphs

[My new book, Truly Are the Free, will be available the 30th of November in both print and ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or in ebook on Kobo. You can also find my first book, None of Us the Same, at those same vendors.] I never really thought much about epigraphs until about a […]