I attended a college graduation recently and got strangely emotional before the ceremony began. I started analyzing why, and I finally landed on the fact that I love learning, and haven’t stopped doing so, really, since I was a kid. I took out a notebook, started jotting down some thoughts, and before long I had the makings of an article on the topic that dips into nostalgia, yes, but also touches on a prophecy made by one of my professors way back in…

FREE GIVEAWAY ALERT – 30 COPIES! — The big news in this Semiquincentennial year is that my wife, Denise Kiernan, is releasing her newest narrative‑nonfiction title, OBSTINATE DAUGHTERS: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution, (Penguin Random House) on June 23,  2026. From May 11 to June 8, 2026, you can enter to win one of 30 hardcover books in the official Goodreads giveaway…

I have too many books, and I’ve grown to accept that I always will. When I first started reading, I always finished books that I bought or borrowed before buying another one. This used to be an unspoken rule of mine. It just felt like the smart thing to do. But somehow I took a wrong turn. It happened after college when I was living on my own. Slowly, I started buying books that I intended to read, brought them home, stuck them on a shelf somewhere, and never…

In another week or so students all over the nation and world will start donning their gowns and mortarboards and march joyfully into arenas to collect their diplomas. A rite of passage that never gets old. Today at SleuthSayers I’m reminiscing about one of my first job interviews. It was for a job that I would have liked in the book publishing world. I didn’t do many book publishing interviews when I was fresh out of school. I was so focused on landing a job at a magazine, since that was the focus of my college study. But this job—which I didn’t get—would have been special. It was the only one that…

There are lot of stories online about small children who lost teeth while visiting Disneyland or Disney World and how the Disney Cast Members made that adorable rite of passage into something special for the young visiting child. There are even Disney blogs that coach parents on what do if their family is about to visit one of the Disney properties when one of their kids is likely to lose a tooth. That’s all lovely, and go ahead and follow all the sweet advice you can glean. But to my mind, there is really only one lost Disney tooth story, and it’s the only one I’ve encountered in a Disney-related book…

The weather has finally warmed up in my neighborhood. Not quite warm or predictable enough to plant our usual retinue of garden plants. But one of the most welcome plants has already popped up of its own accord. This is none other than wild arugula. It’s a delightful plant with sawtooth leaves and a delicious, peppery flavor. When we lived briefly in Italy, we’d find it growing wild in the fields where we lived. The plant is an annual but it self-sows readily. We’d go out in the morning and pick a bunch for an afternoon or dinner salad. The Italians call it “rughetta”…

The glory days of pulp fiction were the 1920s to 1940s, when newsprint magazines filled with thrilling stories were available by the dozens or even hundreds at dirt-cheap prices. For as little as a nickel or dime readers snapped up copies filled with tons of genre tales. The writers who cranked out copy for these magazines were paid as little as a third of a cent a word to four cents a word. Those days are long gone. In the mystery field, there are far fewer ways to get paid as a writer. Hilariously, though, the top two magazines in the mystery genre today pay a munificent 8 cents a word. When writers talk about the days of the pulps, it’s often with reverence, as if writers back then had great opportunities that have since dried up…

Every time I post an article here and elsewhere, my words are stolen by people or bots intending to train AI. It started slowly, but over the last year the analytics behind my site visits have made it pretty clear that this trend is far from over. It’s annoying, to say the least. Which is why I am klipshjodianly attempting to discuss the topic today in one of my articles for the mystery blog, SleuthSayers. Here is part of what I’m discussing today in an article entitled…

We are at an unusual point in the American calendar this week, with three days of significance. Yesterday, February 12th, was the Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which was once celebrated as a national holiday in the USA. Friday, today, is Friday the 13th, a day devoted to superstitions surrounding the unlucky number 13. Tomorrow, of course, is St. Valentine's Day, a day of love. Admittedly, the only thing that's weird or unusual is the appearance of Friday the 13th in the middle of two other, long-established dates that have been on our calendar for a long time. To celebrate, I'm doing what I hope is an interesting take on Lincoln, a president who…

FREE GIVEAWAY ALERT – 30 COPIES! — As I’ve mentioned here before, my wife, Denise Kiernan, is releasing her newest narrative‑nonfiction title, OBSTINATE DAUGHTERS: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution, (Penguin Random House) on June 23, 2026. From Feb. 2 – Feb. 23, 2026, you can enter to win one of 30 brand‑new hardcover copies in the official Goodreads giveaway.

Here’s the link: