StanleyWheeler

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. Those words are Shakespeare's coming from the mouth of MacBeth. I purloined a few of those words to create something upon the same sad subject but slathered with hope rather than steeped in MacBeth's bitter despair. The occasion in my case was the passing of a close cousin. Here's my version: We watched in pain as all his tomorrows slowly faded into yesterdays. The petty pace of day to day pressed him ever down the wandering path from the womb toward the clay. His candle now burns elsewhere for his hour has played out upon this stage. His syllables of sound ...

Interview with Christina Ochs Author of The Desolate Empire Series War of the Four Gods Series Christina's Books   Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. Right now, I’m in final edits on Sword of Destiny, the second book of a trilogy based on the English Civil War. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? This series emerged as a sequel to The Desolate Empire, a seven-book series based on the Thirty Years War. Since the English Civil War happened concurrently and involved some of the same people, it seemed like a natural direction to take. Do you write in more than one genre? Not yet, though at some point I might make the switch to straight up historical fiction. Tell me about something that you believe makes your writing unique or worthy of attention. I don’t know how unique it is, but in response to so much fantasy taking the grimdark direction in recent years, I wanted to show how love, family and fri...

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale--a couple perhaps. Let me begin with the movie and finish with the book. Both tales involved scoundrels, rogues, and the good guys who had to deal with them. Here's the easy one; the lesser of the two tales, but an entertaining one nonetheless: If you're looking for swashbuckling fun on the high seas, you need look no further than this little gem filled with pirate stereotypes and, arrrrhguably the greatest of them all, Blackbeard himself. Robert Newton's portrayal of Edward Teach is more fun than a barrel of puppies with eye-patches and peg legs. If you don't think that's fun, you'll be swinging from the yarrrhdarrrhm before morning, matey. Of course Teach is a terrible scoundrel and murderer. He brooks no foolishness from his crew, but being his partner or ally may be more dangerous than being his enemy. Newton provided one my favorite scenes in the movie when he tried to persuade his pirate ...