If you’re a regular reader, you know I recently went on a river cruise through Germany. One of the places we stopped was the city of Mainz. In case you don’t know, Mainz was the home of Johannes Gutenberg, which makes it hallowed ground for writers because without his press, our profession wouldn’t be possible. Yes, there were writers long before Gutenberg. What was missing was readers. Mass literacy wasn’t possible until books became relatively cheap and easy to produce. Before Gutenberg, reading was for the educated elite. Gutenberg didn’t invent the press. The Chinese did that about 350 years earlier. What Gutenberg did was invent movable type made of…

Most of the time where authors write is just the place where they write. Sure, we try to dress it up with little things we hope will spur our muses on, but familiarity tends to dull the excitement after a while. Sometimes, an author is lucky enough to write somewhere special. On rare occasion, we have the opportunity to write in a setting that kicks our Muses in the backside and makes them pay attention. I have just returned from one of those experiences. I was fortunate enough to embark on a river cruise along the Rhine and Moselle. These two rivers are known for two things: vineyards and castles.…

I grow, but I never shrink. Every reader has one. What am I? The To Be Read pile. Currently, mine counts more than five dozen books. Luckily, I switched to digital books years ago, or I’d be playing Jenga with them on my office floor. I’ll never finish because there are already far too many wonderful books for me to read in my lifetime, and more get published every year. It’s the one to-do list that makes me happier the longer it gets. I hope to die at 100 years of age with an ereader in my hand and great read open the the very last page because, of course,…