James M. Jackson's Blog, page 6

Why people have such a low opinion of politicians

A recent Gallup poll (Nov. 2-8, 2017) put Congress’s approval rating at 13%, disapproval at 81%, and 6% with no opinion. The short answer why so many disapprove is that we believe the vast majority are unprincipled.
Principled politicians carry the same core beliefs whether they are in power or out of power.
House Republicans yesterday again demonstrated their that belief in state’s rights applies only when they’re not the ones telling the states how to act. If enacted, the law they passed and...

Republicans Lie to Themselves to Justify Tax Cuts

The only selling point Republicans have left to justify their tax law is their off-stated belief that it will spur growth and EVERYONE will benefit. Unfortunately, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the overwhelming majority of macro economists do not agree with their hype.
Republicans promised historic tax reform. Actual reform to simplify the tax code and eliminate loopholes would take time and considered compromises. The Republicans decided they didn’t have time and prove...

Has We the People become I the Individual?

I belong to a group of bloggers called Writers Who Kill. It’s not meant literally, of course, but as mystery/suspense/thriller writers our writing includes murder. My books have included mass poisonings, many shootings, attempted suicides, and in my current WIP Empty Promises (Seamus McCree #5), a rock becomes a murder weapon.
In the wake of this month’s Las Vegas mass-shooting, I again debated with myself whether writing novels with violence abetted the epidemic of killing in the United State...

Author’s Toolbox: The Auditory Read Through

Every author develops a toolkit of writing skills and techniques, preferred software and hardware, and proven processes to develop a polished manuscript. In my online course, Revision and Self-Editing(next month-long class starts October 1 if you are interested), I suggest authors add the Auditory Read Through to their stockpile of available tools.
If you are like most modern authors, you compose your first draft using a word-processing program, which means you first see your words on a s...

Two Keys to Page-Turning Novels

Even Bears Sometimes Get Lost in the Wood
Reviews of my Seamus McCree novels suggest many readers find them to be page-turners. Some even “complain” that they lost sleep because they couldn’t put the story down. I can sympathize. There are certain authors whose books I can’t put down—and it’s not necessarily because they are action thrillers.
I researched the issue and paid attention to how authors I can’t put down reel me in to reading just one more scene. “I’ll put the book down at the next w...

An Open Letter to All Members of Congress

It’s artificial crisis time again: you must decide whether to vote to raise the debt ceiling. Congress, according to the latest Gallup PollVery few, if any, of you 535 officeholders want t...

Fire and Ice

Here’s a YouTube version of Robert Frost’s short poem, “Fire and Ice,” which was first published in Harper’s Magazinein 1920 and later incorporated in the Pulitzer-winning book New Hampshire. It’s a short poem, and I give you permission to do a quick listen before reading the rest of this blog.
With all the bloviating going on between the heads of state of North Korea and the United States, I was reminded of Frost’s poem, written not long after the end of World War I, but well before the nucle...

Chihuly Garden and Glass

The last morning we were in Seattle as part of a 19-day excursion with our youngest granddaughter, we took in the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibition. It’s part of the Seattle Center, whose best-known attraction is the Space Needle. A series of five short films are part of the exhibit. They feature Dale Chihuly talking about his approach to some of his exhibitions. Pictures in this blog come from the Seattle exhibit.

Having visited some of his other exhibits, I would have guessed that he was a...

Living on Borrowed Time

Last week a five-minute blast of very high straight winds hit our property in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In the hundred feet between our house and cabin and the lake, we lost all or parts of eight large trees: three hemlocks, two spruces, one cedar, and two maples. I haven’t explored the south end of my near-shore property, so there could be more. I have traveled most of the paths that wander through the remainder of my eighty acres looking for damage and found nothing major.
Why the disparit...

Life Lesson from Choral Experiences

I started singing in choirs in elementary school. In those early years, we learned music by ear: listen to the teacher and reproduce what you hear. It’s how we learned to speak, but easier for some than for others. Later, we learned to sing by reading music. In that, I had an advantage because my parents forced piano lessons on me starting in second or third grade. I discovered you can learn by rote, but it’s much easier if you first master the tools of the trade. That, it turns, out, applies...