Matthew Arnold Stern's Blog, page 23

Dodgers versus Angels

My novel The Remainders will be published by Black Rose Writing on September 2, 2021. I will describe my book in a series of posts. You can read other posts in The Remainders category on my website. I cover a lot of subjects in The Remainders, including homelessness, past trauma, and my hometown of Reseda. One […]

Stumbling towards normalcy

This picture was from the last time we visited Legoland in February 2020. Next week, we are going there for the first time in 15 months. Of course, it won’t be the same since the last time we visited. We will have to wear masks and social distance. Some rides won’t be open. But going […]

What Toastmasters has taught me about book contests

If you published a book, you probably want to enter it in a book contest. If you win, you will get a nice sticker to put on your cover and ads. If you don’t, you still get something all authors need: Someone to read your writing. I’ve been an entrant and a judge of book […]

Stories of reassurance and normalcy

When the pandemic began, I wondered how children would see this crisis. After 13+ months of masks, remote school, and limited activities, what children want is reassurance. One way we as parents can offer them this is through stories. I recently reviewed The Safe Return by Ashley Wheelock and Arwen Evans. This beautifully illustrated and written […]

Q & A with Joseph Carrabis

One benefit of social media is you meet some wonderful people. One of them is author Joseph Carrabis. He has been everything from a long-haul trucker to a chief research scientist. He has taught internationally at the university level; holds patents in a base, disruptive technology; created a company that grew from his basement to […]

The latest on coming attractions

Here’s the latest on some projects that I’m working on this year. My NaNoWriMo project has a complete draft and new title Although I “won” NaNoWrimo back in November by finishing the first 50,000 words of my new novel, I had more work to do before I could call the draft complete. Part of that […]

When it’s all over

Since everyone else is doing the “it’s been a whole year since…” thing, I’ll do it too. It’s been a whole year since I last stepped foot in my office at work. My wall calendar is probably still stuck at March 2020 like the hands frozen on a pocket watch after a disaster. I have […]

The joys of indie children’s books: Q & A with Ray Allen Price

Last month, I wrote about the joys of indie children’s books. One of the books we discussed in the WriteOrWrong Virtual Book Club was Build With Bricks by Ray Allen Price. (You can watch our full discussion on Facebook.) Ella Clarke called it, “Very smart, life lesson book by Ray Price! Loved the themes, the play […]

Using non-scale victories to help you achieve goals

Since I joined WW in October 2019, I’ve learned a number of valuable skills that have helped me get healthy. One of them is to look for non-scale victories. This has helped me in dropping weight, and it has many other applications in life. With most weight-loss programs I’ve been on, the focus was exclusively […]

The joys of indie children’s books

My wife and I enjoyed reading to our children when they were little, and it’s something we do for our granddaughter. We started them off with picture books and Dr. Seuss. Our daughter went on to Junie B. Jones by the late, great Barbara Park, and then turned to the Harry Potter series. My son gravitated […]