Author: Ron Rozelle

A little bird named facebook told me that today is my friend Jim Renfro’s birthday. Which is reason enough to address a subject and make a book recommendation that I’ve had on my to-do list. Jim is a retired engineer, a current (I guess; we haven’t visited in a while) member of a chain gang … Continue reading Strictly for the birds

If you are a reader - I mean a constant, meticulous reader who savors good writing like good food - then you’ll recognize the experience I’m about to try to describe. It was the day after Thanksgiving in 2008, and my wife Karen and I were at my sister and brother-in-law’s house . While Karen … Continue reading Stepping into a setting

When he was a young boy in Pennsylvania novelist James Michener once watched a neighbor driving rusty nails into the trunk of an old apple tree that had pretty much quit producing. When he asked why he was doing it  the man told him the tree had forgotten its purpose. Those nails, he said, would … Continue reading Late fruit

So. I’ll bet this has happened to you. You’re driving down the freeway and some jerk suddenly swerves in front of you, making you tap your brake, spill your coffee, and maybe use a word or two that you usually avoid using. Then the guy’s brake lights blink frantically as he moves one way and … Continue reading Comeuppance

  I’m a big fan of travel books. I’m not talking about travel guides, like the Frommer’s Guides to … just about everywhere on earth. Or the ones for thrifty folk on how to do New York (or Paris or London) on ten dollars a day, which I can assure is not possible. I’ve tried … Continue reading Armchair traveling

Hemingway, according to legend, was challenged to write a novel in only six words and came up with “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Can you do it? These folks tried (I might have gotten these from Writer's Digest)…. Zak Nelson: I still make coffee for two. Alex Lindquist: It was embarrassing, so don’t ask. … Continue reading Working short

Writers have been working animals into their stories for as long as there have been stories. When Odysseus returned from Troy the only member of his family to recognize him was his faithful old dog Argos.  One of the earliest beast fables, stories where animals speak to each other in human voices, was Chaucer’s tale … Continue reading A bond writers shouldn’t overlook

  I barely missed the golden age of radio.    But I caught it on the rebound. When Uncle Sam put me to some little use in Germany in the early 1970s, keeping democracy safe by standing guard duty and typing reports, the Armed Forces Radio Network regularly aired a variety of old radio programs. … Continue reading New insights from an old medium

Mrs. Anderson, my senior English teacher in high school, was an oddity.  She drove an enormous old Buick with high, sharp tailfins from her home in Palestine to Oakwood, my hometown in East Texas, every day.  She had retired years before but fate, or an inadequate pension, sent her to us as an afterthought. She … Continue reading As a new school year commences, a little story.

“A, S, D, F, J, K, L, semicolon.” If you chimed in during that little mantra you are probably of sufficient age to have taken Typing in high school. Not Keyboarding, which replaced Typing in the curriculum. Or BCIS, which is a current offering; don’t ask me what the letters stand for. I’m talking about … Continue reading Typewriters