A sad day is the last thing anyone wants. But sometimes a sad day brings a good balance to the happy or normal days. In the same way, a sad novel can bring a good balance to the enjoyment you get from reading. But no matter what emotion a novel invokes, good writing is good writing.

Have you thought about what makes a good novel or a good movie great? For me, the reasons always include great character development. They are well-written and believable. I think my wife gets tired of me saying that a character in a movie is…

Mutiny on the Amistad

John Quincy Adams sits stoically in his seat in the Supreme Court Chamber of the US Capitol Building. It’s 1841 and slavery is still legal in Washington City, the capital of the United States. He is there to defend numerous Africans kidnapped two years previously from Africa, bound for slavery in Cuba.

I have asked myself these questions. Why do I write? What do I hope for? I have found some answers as I have pondered. Writing provides a release of tension, clarity of mind, an emotional cleansing that I have not been able to find anywhere else. Reading does provide an amount of the same feelings but not nearly to the same extent.

I went in search of a description of this in books, introductions to books, and the like to see if I could find a description of this, to see if other more established writers felt the same sentiments…

I can't conceive what has happened to the Republican Party. I am so very confused. I am on the email list for both main political parties in the United States. It keeps me up to date and, in the past, has helped me understand goals, current events, and where the parties are trying to go.

But every email I receive from the RNC, the GOP, only confuses me more. I just don’t get it.

It must be understood that I am a Conservative, a Republican by tradition and by choice. In the past, I was proud of the Republican legacy…

I recently reread a book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, that I have read so many times, I can’t even count. This caused me to start thinking of any other books I have read so many times that I can’t count. I came up with a list of five that I have read at least ten times.

As I contemplated these books, I had to ask myself, Why? Why have I read them repeatedly? There are numerous reasons, including entertainment, valuable lessons learned, and quality of writing. But there are many books that are entertaining. What makes these…

The United States Presidential Line of Succession is an interesting thing to contemplate. This line of succession is outlined in the Constitution and specifies in detail who will succeed the president should the president become incapacitated, be removed, resign, or die in office.

The order of succession specifies that the office passes to the vice president. …

Uncle Sam is the personification of the federal government or the nation as a whole. We are all familiar with this idiom. But where did the name Uncle Sam come from? The story is interesting.

Samuel Wilson joined the Continental Army in 1781 at the age of 15. His duties were not glamorous and included guarding cattle, mending fences, and slaughtering and packaging beef. Although not glamorous work, these responsibilities were important to the war effort.

British soldiers would target food and water sources in an effort to tamper and poison the colonial armies. His service in the Continental Army…

For those of you unfamiliar with Mark Twain’s exhaustive three-volume autobiography, it was written in an interesting fashion. He had tried to begin his autobiography many times over the decades with little success. He started thirty or forty times. He decided that the best way to do it would be to hire a stenographer to write as he talked. So he hired Josephine Hobby, a skilled and experienced stenographer.

He also decided, somewhat egotistically, that a good autobiography should include the author’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions about then-current events and whatever else he was thinking about on any given day.

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