Category Archives: Fiction Writer

I think my first visit to Eureka Springs was a long day-trip in 1984, driving up from Little Rock where I lived. I rode the trains. I toured the town. I was charmed by it.When I was dating Angi, we … Continue reading →

History of the railroad known generally as “The North Arkansas Line” figures prominently in the three volumes of The ‘People of the Water’ Cycle. These are some of the works I referred to while writing those sections.A railway with a … Continue reading →

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love to read and didn’t want to write. Before I could type, in junior high school, I was writing a series of short stories longhand in blue ink on noteboook paper. They … Continue reading →

I mocked up this cover of a graphic novel to include among the items in the bookcase for the cover of the third novel, The Aqueous Solution. Hopefully it conveys a little of the almost-immortal title character’s gentle and pensive … Continue reading →

“Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” So wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay, “Self-Reliance.” It’s actually longer than that, and worth reading the whole rhyme, if not the entire essay. But I digress, because I don’t really … Continue reading →

Beginning writers are encouraged to keep their first novel manuscripts in the 50,000 – 60,000 word range. And believe me, it’s easy to go off on an interesting tangent and usually not as easy to get back to the story … Continue reading →

The first book in my novel Cycle is, of course, dedicated to my late wife, Peggie Angela (Laird) Brenton. Gone now these eight-and-a-half years, she still inspires me with her noble and generous character, her great intelligence and passion for … Continue reading →

Railway Winery produces and offers this wispily mysterious white wine named for the “Ghost Train” story that is integral to the plot of the first novel in my series, The Water Cure. I quote the article from Railroad Magazine verbatim … Continue reading →

The battery-powered conductor’s lantern becomes a symbol of paradox in all three novels of The “People of the Water” Cycle. In most cases, the paradox involves an effect that has no cause, due to the vicissitudes of time travel. This … Continue reading →

You meet this item about halfway through the second book in the Cycle, The Crystalline Clarity. One character calls it the “Hillbilly Spaceship.”