Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 42

Lovely to hear you again, my friends

[image error]© Kguzel – Dreamstime.com

It’s been a great deal of fun this fall, getting back in touch with old friends via newly released audiobooks.

First, Robert Glenister narrated the immense fifth installment of Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling’s wonderful mystery series about Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott, who is pretty much my favorite fictional heroine these days. They are soulmates but too scared to admit it, which provides an interesting undercurrent to all of their investiga...

The day after Thanksgiving

On the day after Thanksgiving, I am still grateful for being able to share my life with a woman who will cook a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings and, unable to serve everyone together due to circumstances, packs the food into containers and drives an hour to deliver the meals.

Of course, I am grateful to be able to share my life with the two slightly daft animals in this photo, who provide daily delight and occasional frustration. (The patio door in the background is the portal f...

Happy Thanksgiving: Building a new marina

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –

This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul –

— Emily Dickinson

I spent Wednesday building this new marina for my fleet of frigates; today I am thankful for all the journeys I’ve taken in them.

Great artists steal, but it’s not theft

There’s something new under the sun … every day.

Each and every one of us is a creator. It’s in our nature.

When we create something, whether it’s a painting or a poem or a store display or a legal brief, we give something of ourselves that did not exist before we gave it.

Picasso or Faulkner — or neither or both — reportedly said, “Bad artists copy. Great artists steal.” But it’s not theft.

They did not “steal” from other creators in the sense that they took others’ property away, b...

What if you can do it?

What if you CAN do it?

Do you see how that changes everything?

“One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of the great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”

I wish I’d said that, but Henry Ford beat me to it, a long time ago, so long ago I hadn’t been born yet, and you know how long THAT is.

Ford is also the guy who said, “Whether you think you can do it, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Mind set is everything.

OK, it’s a big part of ever...

Maybe shift the focus

Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.

Maybe instead of asking what we want to write today, we should ask what our readers want to read.

Maybe even that is the wrong question. Maybe we should be asking what we want to read, and then write that.

Someone is nodding and saying to themselves, “Now he’s talking.”

Are they the right Someone? Are there enough of these Someones to make a difference?

Now you’re talking.

The assassination of Margaret Thatcher

[image error]Margaret Thatcher in 1986. Photo © Laurence Agron – Dreamstime.com

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains general discussion of the fourth season of the television series The Crown, which debuted last week. If you like to watch a program without knowing what happens, come back at a later date after viewing the show.

This Brittanica article describes Margaret Thatcher as “The only British prime minister to win three consecutive terms and, at the time of her resignation, Britain’s longest continu...

Here’s how it will be when the dust settles

Oh, we go through this in cycles, every four years. Such a fuss, such a lather, and in a few months there’ll be the same old realization that “the most important election of our time” produced yet another dose of “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Oh, there’ll be some cosmetic differences, but the vast protection racket will still be in place and we’ll still be toiling away for the privilege of giving a third or more of what we’ve earned to a machine that does not rule over us as ...

Did I create the monster?

I have a mantra that I tell Willow The Best Dog There Is almost every day.

You’re the puppiest pup of all the pups who ever pupped.

You’re the doggiest dog of all the dogs who ever dogged.

You’re the willowiest Willow of all the Willows who ever willed.

You’re the BEST — DOG — THERE — IS. Yes, you are.

And Willow is the sweetest, gentlest, most regal and dignified dog you’d like to know.

Her little sister, Dejah Thoris Princess of Mars, is something else. I’m more likely to...

A new blurb for A Blue Guitar

Ever since that magical day in April when I read through my draft of How to Play a Blue Guitar, thought “this is not a draft this is the book,” and published it then and there, I have struggled to describe this book.

(Stop me if you’ve heard this recently) As I was reading Seth Godin’s new book The Practice, he asked his readers regarding their projects, “Who’s It For?” and “What’s It For?”

And then, after writing yesterday’s blog post, “A New Dream All Its Own,” I suddenly knew. The b...