Lyn Fuchs's Blog, page 15

The True Bad-Ass Meaning of Thanksgiving

For people around the globe who want a brief, no-bullshit summary of Thanksgiving, here it is. Everything began around 1620. The new world settlements in Jamestown and Plymouth on the East Coast of the Americas were established by some folks who wanted more freedom in their financial and spiritual lives than their European homeland governments would allow them.

These people had traded modern amenities for a lengthy, filthy, hungry sea voyage followed by a lengthy, filthy, hungry homesteading i...

Time Well Spent Among the Maya

Have you ever wondered how the aggressive empire-building Maya of classic times transformed into the comparatively amenable Maya of today? Maybe you should. If the Mayan concept of time as more loop than line is correct, this history may be prophecy of how the U.S. empire will end not with a bang but with a whimper. Care for a glimpse into that ancient future?

Time Among the Maya by Ronald Wright is a travel narrative that enlightens the reader on those obscure centuries that took the Maya fro...

Author Lyn Fuchs Publicly Exposes Himself

Much thanks and many hugs go out to the people who were gathered yesterday at Garrison & Garrison Books in San Miguel to celebrate the Mexico release of Fresh Wind & Strange Fire. Store owner Michelle Garrison brought her cool personality, warm demeanor and uber-hot look. (I also dug the way she shoved Rick Skwiot's books aside to put mine at the front of the table.)

Travel writer Mittie Rogers graciously came up with the event idea. Of course, she was just too damn important to attend...

Wandering Mystic Meditation From Flanders Fields

He was born in the small city of Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 1872. He was the son of a military officer and the grandson of Scottish immigrants. He was a doctor, yet his lasting legacy comes to us from the brutality of war and from a poem that still speaks a century after his death.

John McCrae studied in his home province at the Royal Military College and the University of Toronto. He later worked as a professor and surgeon on both sides of the border. Meanwhile, he started writing poetry...

The Gravity of Our Situation

Well, I guess it's settled. Sandra Bullock will be nominated for this year's Best Actress Oscar. She may not win it, but she has to be the frontrunner. How many actresses this year have carried over 80% of the screen time in a truly groundbreaking film where they more or less play the part of all humanity with its frailty and resiliency? Ballpark figure: one.

She even does it without pretending she can whoop the ass of every man or that her beauty at middle age is the same as two decades ago....

Twisted Vagabondage Tale From Rhode Island

I am all about atmosphere. As an occasional believer in the paranormal, if not exactly a “Ghost Buster” or a “Van Helsing,” I found it fascinating that gritty film-noir New York managed to magnetically draw two dedicated masters of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe and Howard Phillips Lovecraft, to write here for a spell.

Like literary Ray Bradbury, both writers represented real “belle lettres” rather than shameless schlock. There is a restaurant that I’m fond of in Manhattan’s “Nolita,” on Bo...

San Miguel de A LYN DAY

Condé Nast Traveler just selected San Miguel de Allende, Mexico as one of the top destinations on the planet. Why? I think it's fairly obvious: because I'll be there on November 16th, 2013  -  live, uncensored and nearly sober. Can you dig it? From 4 to 6 pm Saturday, I'll be reading, signing, and hugging people somewhat inappropriately at Garrison & Garrison bookstore.

Don't miss this opportunity to have an unforgettable encounter with an actual living caveman. I sincerely do re...

Author Lyn Fuchs Drops Off The Grid

To plan my next book, I am dropping off the grid and onto this rustic Mexican ranch. There is no phone nor electricity. Still, all female visitors will be provided with conversation and warmth at no extra cost.

The ranch does have a lake, a veggie garden, some peyote, and a burro called Mary Juana. She requires no gasoline, yet looks much less effeminate than those electric cars.


Here I am making some fresh salsa with veggies grown on the ranch. These veggies are not certified organic. They are...

It's Your Life, So Live It!

Steve Jobs and the personal computer will probably be remembered alongside Johann Gutenberg and the printing press as milestones toward the globalization of information and the democratization of culture. Authors should take heed. Those of us who cling too tightly to our paperbacks will someday be lumped in with ancient clergy who preferred to keep sacred texts on scrolls. The times they are a-changin'.

Ashton Kutcher's acting will likely NOT make history. Yet, his biographical film Jobs...

Smooth Getaway Postcard From Newgrange Ireland

It's older than the pyramids of Egypt and England's Stonehenge. It's an astronomical wonder as well. Yet, the passage grave at Newgrange in Ireland's County Meath is often ignored by package tours of the Emerald Isle. That's a pity, because the megalithic tomb provides a fascinating primer on the way Ireland's people lived (and died) over 5,000 years ago in the beautiful Boyne Valley.
Like Stonehenge, Newgrange is a favorite haunt of spiritualists, animists and Druid cultists, who are wont to...