Archives: fiction

Shakespeare’s First Folio, Grace for All podcast, USPS’s ‘Horses’ stamp series, Forgiveness: newsletter, December 1, 2023

December 1, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, December 1, 2023. The fighting continues among people who should not be fighting—among those who have much to gain if they could stop. So, in that spirit, I offer these three quotations this week: If you want peace, you don’t talk to • Read More »

The Crimes Club, Jane Addams, and finishing the Hitler diaries saga: newsletter, November 24, 2023

November 24, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, November 24, 2023. In this season of Thanksgiving, I find that one of the great blessings of my life is you — the readers of this newsletter. More than a thousand of you — sometimes as many as 1,100 to 1,200 — • Read More »

More on the Hitler diaries hoax, Ray Bradbury on libraries, a biography of Marguerite Higgins: newsletter, November 17, 2023

November 17, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

-This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, November 17, 2023. We are in the middle of the month of November, which in many ways, to my mind at least, is the best month of the year. November is the calm before the storm of excitement and activities of the • Read More »

The Hitler diaries hoax, a Saul Bellow stamp, and the rules for writing detective stories, :newsletter, November 10, 2023

November 10, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, November 10, 2023. The beautiful fields that surround us here in East Tennessee have turned brown. Late this summer, they were green and lush, so much so that we commented on them almost daily. Then it stopped raining, and we haven’t had • Read More »

Rules for writing, the great John Steinbeck, and the second volume in the Vietnam Voices series: newsletter, October 27, 2023

October 27, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, October 27, 2023. When you are writing: Use simple straightforward language to communicate with your readers. Don’t try to develop a writing style. If you have a style, it will come out naturally. Always use “said” as your verb of attribution. If • Read More »

Lawrence Block, Winston Churchill on writing a book, and Vietnam Voices volume 3: newsletter, October 20, 2023

October 20, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, October 20, 2023. For the past two or three weeks, the weather and absence of other duties have allowed me to spend some time doing some woodworking. I have been building a “floating mantle” for some relatives, and I must say the • Read More »

Napoleon’s height, the final volume of Vietnam Voices, and a plea to stop reading the news: newsletter, October 13, 2023

October 13, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, October 13, 2023. One of my favorite bloggers, Shane Parrish, has recently made the argument that people would be much better off if they simply stopped reading the news. Here’s part of his argument: Like a drug, the news is addictive. Once you • Read More »

Banned Book Week, Nancy Drew, the ‘Boy’ trilogy, and the modern inverted mystery: newsletter, October 6, 2023

October 6, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, October 6, 2023.   Book banning. The utter futility of it seems obvious to me. Even if you succeed in taking a book off a library or bookstore shelf, that doesn’t mean you are going to keep the book from being read. • Read More »

The inverted mystery, the role of “influencers,” and a couple of reminders from last week: newsletter, September 29, 2023

September 29, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, September 29, 2023. The word “influencer” has been surfing on my brain waves lately. It’s a new word, but of course, an extremely old concept. It showed up recently in a Washington Post article that examines the way the lobbying organization for • Read More »

Edward Stratemeyer, a book about the Polly Klaas case, and more about AI: newsletter, September 22, 2023

September 22, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, September 22, 2023. Since writing about AI (artificial intelligence) software last week, I have discovered something of a “development” in the world of publishing with regard to AI. Amazon, by far the world’s largest bookseller, is asking publishers/authors: Did you use AI • Read More »

The woman who created the modern superhero, one more from Futrelle, and a new daily devotional podcast: newsletter, September 15, 2023

September 15, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, September 15, 2023. For the past few months, it seems, the world has divided itself into three warring camps: those who believe that AI (artificial intelligence) is the greatest thing since sliced bread; those who think AI is a moral abomination and • Read More »

Crimes and thrills in Icelandic fiction, more on the JFK assassination, and more of the Thinking Machine: newsletter, September 8, 2023

September 8, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, September 8, 2023. I came across this quotation the other day: When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime • Read More »

Britain’s secret assassination squads, more on JFK, and journalists covering crazy statements: newsletter, September 1, 2023

September 1, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, books, fiction, history, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,070) on Friday, September 1, 2023. People should be careful about what they say, about the words that they use. That’s a bit of age-old wisdom that good parents teach to their children. Sometimes people say crazy things, and everyone who hears what they say • Read More »

Jacques Futrelle: The Problem of the Stolen Rubens

August 23, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: fiction, history.

MATTHEW KALE made fifty million dollars out of axle grease, after which he began to patronize the high arts. It was simple enough: he had the money, and Europe had the old masters. His method of buying was simplicity itself. There were five thousand square yards, more or less, in the huge gallery of his marble • Read More »

Clara Barton, the Thinking Machine detective, and Kurt Vonnegut on book banning: newsletter, August 18, 2023

August 18, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, August 18, 2023.   This year, at my house, has been officially declared The Year of the Tomato. Home-grown tomatoes take a prominent place in our garden each year. They are planted carefully and with a real sense of anticipation. We have • Read More »

Jacques Futrelle: The Problem of Cell 13 (a novel)

August 14, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: fiction.

Practically all those letters remaining in the alphabet after Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen was named were afterward acquired by that gentleman in the course of a brilliant scientific career, and, being honorably acquired, were tacked on to the other end. His name, therefore, taken with all that belonged to it, was a wonderfully • Read More »

Alfred Thayer Mahan and the might of seapower, James Baldwin on the role of the artist, and the clerihew: newsletter, August 11, 2023

August 11, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: baseball, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, August 11, 2023. The limerick has been a part of my very limited poetry knowledge for as long as I can remember, but I have just recently encountered the clerihew. That is a four-line, semi-nonsense poem that usually is biographical. That is, • Read More »

Dorothy L. Sayers, the state of the bees, and the Great Hiatus of Sherlock Holmes: newsletter, July 28, 2023

July 28, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, history, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, July 28, 2023.   A question that frequently comes my way these days is, “How are the bees doing?” My typical response, unless the inquirer desires more details, is a simple, “They’re doing well.” During July and August in my region, bee • Read More »

The Dreyfus affair, more Chesterton, and plenty of reader reaction: newsletter, July 21, 2023

July 21, 2023 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (2,845) on Friday, July 21, 2023.   A couple of Saturdays ago, I made the “supreme sacrifice.” Saturday is my day to meet some of my friends for breakfast, and we get there as soon as the restaurant opens at 7 a.m. But on this • Read More »