Lee Hutch's Blog, page 12
November 10, 2019
November, November
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Dear Readers,
November is my least favorite month of the year. It’s that point in the fall semester where, though the end is in sight, paperwork, grading, and emails tend to pile up. It’s also the month where we get our first cold spells of the year. As I type this, what we call in Texas a “norther” is on its way. Tomorrow the high will be in the 70s before plummeting 30 degrees in a matter of hours. And Tuesday? Best not to think about that as our low will hover near freezing. The cold is very hard...
November 3, 2019
The Decline of the Sweet Science
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Dear Readers,
Today (Sunday), I got caught up on the boxing action that I missed yesterday. I have a DAZN subscription, but with other things to do on Saturday, I could not watch the fights. And seeing as how the Canelo match didn’t start until after midnight CST, I would have probably fallen asleep anyway. So this morning, as I watched Ireland’s own Katie Taylor win a decision over Christina Linardatou of Greece, I began to ponder the history of la dolce scienza alongside the history of the country. For those...of la
October 31, 2019
My Halloween Tradition
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Dear Readers,
What do you do for Halloween? I have my own little tradition that I’ve done for the past few years. On Halloween night, I get in bed, turn out the lights, and listen to the original War of the Worlds broadcast on CD via my retro looking radio/CD player. Given the fact that my house was built in 1932, it’s quite possible that the original owner may have listened to the live broadcast back in 1938! The original air date was October 30th, not the 31st, but I prefer to listen on Halloween....
October 27, 2019
Remember the….what?
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Dear Readers,
When I was a baby, I took my first steps in front of the Alamo in San Antonio. My grandparents lived on Alamo Avenue in Port Arthur. I watched every Alamo movie that was available at the time (usually while wearing a coonskin cap) and had a large collection of children’s books about the siege and battle. In one of my upper level college history courses, we had to do archival research for a paper. I wrote a demographic study of the defenders of the Alamo and visited the Alamo Library to...
October 20, 2019
An Update
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Dear Readers,
I hope you enjoyed my interview. Talking about my own writing process was a lot of fun. The thing to keep in mind is that all writers have different approaches to getting a book completed. Study the writing habits of as many of your favorite writers as you can, and then pick and choose the bits that work for you and incorporate them into your own style. Some like to write in the mornings and others in the middle of the night. You know when you work best, so do that rather than try and...
October 11, 2019
An Interview With…Me!
September 28, 2019
More Than A Feeling
In my opinion, the pole was the best part of the job. Sadly, they are slowly disappearing. A travesty, in my opinion. I was just as excited to use it on my first call as on my last.
Dear Readers,
One day in class, a few semesters ago, I was teaching about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire when a student raised his hand. As students rarely tend to ask questions (or stop by to visit during office hours), I stopped mid sentence and bid him to speak.
“What’s it like being a firefighter?” he a...
September 21, 2019
Fiction on Fire
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Dear Readers,
You’ll notice a tab to a new page on the blog called Fiction on Fire. I want to assemble a collection of every novel about firefighter written by firefighters that I can find. There are a whole bunch of non-fiction books about the job written by those who do it, but there are not many firefighters who write novels about firefighting. That’s why I want to come up with a comprehensive list of them. I do have quite a few already that I will be adding over the next couple of days,...
September 18, 2019
Molly’s Song(s)
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Dear Readers,
As the title of my work in progress, Molly’s Song, does, in fact, reference music, I thought I might take pen in hand to tell you what playlist I’ve listened to whilst I’ve been working on the book. Some of the songs are historical ones, and other ones are modern ones which fit the tone and subject matter. A few of the historical songs make an appearance in the book as well. (Only the public domain ones, of course.) So, without further delay, here is the somewhat long list (wit...
September 15, 2019
This Little Book Went to Market
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Dear Readers,
If I have learned one thing since the release of my novel, it is that I should have paid more attention in the marketing class I took in college. The “C” I received, coupled with a “D” in Business Law meant that I was in no way bound for the world of business. Fair enough. I was working as a firefighter at the time and thankfully we don’t have to market our services. People always need us and there are a handy three digits they can call to summon our assistance. Writing a book...
