Boundary Waters opens with a scene many readers consider horrific. A man—a good man, a strong old Ojibwe—is being tortured for information that, in the end, he refuses to give. Some readers can’t get past that opening. But what I point out to them is that nothing graphically violent happens in the opening scene. In … Read more
Even those of you without children will probably understand this. You want to be proud of your children. You want your children to be strong and go out into the world capable of standing against adversity. And selfishly, you want your children to represent you well, to bring honor to your name, and in doing … Read more
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I took the first step this past week. For anyone who missed my initial blog entry, here’s the deal. I’ve embarked on a journey this summer that will involve a first for me—rereading all the books in the Cork O’Connor series. My perspective has always … Read more
It’s a journey for the characters involved in the story. From the opening sentence to the final line, what happens on the pages between changes them. At the end, they may not be any better off, any richer or wiser, but if it’s a good book, what the characters have experienced has made them different … Read more