Victor D. López's Blog: Victor D. Lopez, page 25

Author’s note and excerpt from Chapter 1

Author’s Note

This novel is a work of fiction. Although it was born out of my slightly over one-year experience as the dean of a proprietary, for-profit business school in my first academic posting early in my career in a manner and circumstances similar to the protagonist, the characters, locations, and situations are not based on nor intended to represent any actual persons or places. Alas the issues raised directly and indirectly about the failings of both for-profit education and traditio...

Commentary on my short story, “End of Days”

This is the only thing I ever wrote that made my wife angry. I suspect it is because the light tone of the introductory pages to this piece did not prepare her for the shock of the very specific, horrific and I fear not implausible way that we can finally destroy ourselves. That, after all, was my intention.

Although I’ve destroyed the world in another short story (Mars: Genesis 2.0), in this one it is not merely the world that is destroyed but our corner of the universe, and not through magi...

Podcast: Preview of the short story “Earth Mother”

Echoes of Starlight (poem)

Echoes of Starlight

My feet are bound to clay,
While my heart longs to soar,
On angel’s wings above.

Below lies my future,
My ashes will return,
From whence they were inspired.

Above lie all dreams,
Canopied by ancient light,
From billions of suns.

Civilizations,
Long since turned to dust,
Still cry out to us.

Wish I could see them,
Hear their sweet, silent music,
Understand their lives.

I cannot do so,
Yet I feel their life force still,
Rippling out through space.

Bound to their own cl...

Podcast: This is the last post link for today (promise). It contains my preview reading of the opening pages of each of the 10 short stories in my Mindscapes short story collection. This is a cold reading recorded in a single seating so please do not confu

Podcast: Link to my brief introductory lecture to copyright law for a general audience (approximately 50 minutes)

Podcast: Background commentary and reading of an excerpt from Chapter 10 of my novel, Hire Lernin’

Podcasts: Readings of my English original and Spanish translation of the poem Requiem for Love

Podcast: Why I Write (poem)

Why I Write

I do not write for money,
And even less for fame,
I write because I have to,
It’s simply who I am.

I’m a jack of many trades,
And the master of a few,
But they do not define me,
They are just the things I do.

What I write will not endure,
Much of it will not be read,
Little of all I publish,
Will long survive once I’m dead.

I’d write if no one read me,
In ink, on sand or in blood,
As long as reason abides,
I know that I will not stop.

It is so for all of us,
Who are writers a...

Podcasts with my short story preview readings

I’ve grouped most of my podcasts that feature preview and complete readings from a wide selection of the short stories that appear in my Echoes of the Mind’s Eye collection in a separate page on this blog that you can access by clicking here. I’ve also grouped a generous preview of links to podcasts with full-chapter readings from my novel Hire Lernin’ that you can access on a separate page in this blog by clicking here. I may do the same in the future for my poetry readings but there are too ma...