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A Comment About Moby Dick

I finished reading Moby Dick , by Herman Melville. A few times over the past several weeks, people have seen me hefting the book around — yes, I read a printed copy — and without fail they shuddered at the memory. “I had to read that in high school!” they’d say, rolling their eyes. Frankly, I can see why a sixteen-year-old would be bored to tears by the book. I can also see why a forty-year-old would be bored. The book almost bored me to tears. But despite that, it changed my perspective in profound ways. The minutiae of the whaling world, the details about Nantucket, the strange Nantucket pastor, the detailed descriptions of sperm whales and right whales, and of whaling ships — all of it comes together in the psyche to do its work. Now I know what the hubbub is about, and why Moby Dick is found among the lists of literary masterpieces. A few years back I read a condensed version for young people. It was merely boring, and it lacked the one-two punch to the mind ...

Medley of Fairy Tales, Volume II

A few years ago, I met a remarkable person named Jenni James . Jenni is a bestselling author of something like 40 books ( HERE 's a link to her Amazon Author page and you can count them). I can't remember under what circumstances we met, but I know it involved exchanging home-baked goods at our doorsteps, and being invited into each other's houses, etc...Jenni is an awesome cook. I don't remember how the subject came up, but Jenni asked me if I wanted to be in a writer's group. Another writer, Allison Brown , was interested in starting a group in our area. That invitation has changed my life. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's true. I owe Jenni and Allison a great debt of gratitude for their kindness and their advice over the past three years or so. Three years! Time is so weird. Last year we decided to put together a book of fairy tales. I wrote a Snow White adaptation, "Blancanieves," for that book. This year we've got anoth...

On The Outskirts of Beryl

Beryl Utah The streets are carved into the desert, but most of the blocks remain empty. NOTE: I have changed the specific location and some of the details out of concern for the privacy of the other individual. A few years ago I was tasked with visiting some of the most remote places in Utah. I used to live in Cedar City, and I felt fortunate whenever my job kept me close to home. So when I saw Beryl, Utah on my travel list, I was happy about it. Beryl, a sparsely populated community of about a thousand people -- two people per square mile -- was just over an hour away, to the west. To get there, I drove along a winding little two lane highway that leads over and between all the juniper covered hills that separate Cedar City from the vast west desert, then I entered into the flat desert valley. To look at Beryl from above one can see how desolate it is. It is brown and gray. Even the sagebrush has taken on the color so that everywhere you look, there's no escaping the...

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