It was like watching the grinch grow a heart — It was 32 degrees by noon. That’s 90* Fahrenheit. Blistering hot. Water bottles and the smell of sweat. I didn’t expect the parade to be very big. Covid is still raging here, hospitals are still full and people who don’t have a death wish are still wearing masks to the…

You don’t see a book like this every day, so I took photos to show you. 5 stars are not enough, I promise you. — Sometimes, I read a book and I want to tell the world about it. This one, I want to show you. Because it is a truly beautiful book. Visually stunning with superb storytelling. It’s not just a book. It’s a book, with art. So many people make history so boring…

He drove a wagon and used a double barreled shotgun, because America has always been a killin’ place, even in 1903 — Gilbert Twigg was angry at the world. He’d tried. God knows, he’d tried. But everywhere he turned, someone done him wrong. From the woman who dumped him right on down to the people who wouldn’t give him a job even though he was qualified. He was finished. Done. And damn…

Frankenstein was written by a pregnant teenage runaway — Mary Shelley lost her virginity on her mother’s grave. People are so shocked by that, there’s a Snopes entry about it. She was sixteen. He was 24. A married man with a three year old child and a pregnant wife. Everyone knows the story of Frankenstein, but few know the…

Two crucial rules you absolutely *must* follow — $10,000 DOLLARS. For writing a story. Can you even imagine? Some people say writing challenges are a long shot. And they kind of are, because a lot of people enter. But at the same time? Several of my readers have won. Four or five, I think? I’ve written about them…

Not really a 16 min read, just a really long list. Can anyone explain 2013? Because wow. — In 2010, a 41 year old man climbed the fence of an elementary school in Carlsbad, California and opened fire on 230 students in the playground. He injured two little 2nd-grade girls before a construction worker tackled him to the ground. The shooter was sentenced to 189 years in jail. …

They’re not the usual lame quotes, they made me think. With photos you may not have seen. — Oscar Wilde committed no crime, yet he did two years hard labor in prison. Locked in a small room, sleeping on a bed of wooden planks. For a time, he was handcuffed in public at Reading Gaol. People would recognize the fallen star. Mock him. Spit on him. …

A bizarre experiment. If you play along, tag me. — You don’t know Rick Lewis. Hell, I don’t know Rick Lewis. He just appeared on my homepage today with this title… “Overcome Your Fears & Write Freely With This Simple Writing Prompt” So I clicked it, of course. Because writing is my forever love. The one thing I’ve always done…

Worse? The Photos Are Fake. Some people make the Mad Hatter look sane — Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a math teacher at Oxford and a deacon of the Anglican Church. But you probably know him as Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland. Dodgson had enrolled in Oxford at 18. He ended up living there his entire adult life. …