Author Archives: Samuel Snoek-Brown

Small stone, Vol. 2, #8

A few minutes ago, I helped a stranger cat to die. Not directly, but it was close enough. He’s a street cat, beefy and tough and full of spit and bravado. He’d been hit by a car. I think his hip is shattered. With the help of some neighbors, I coaxed his broken body intoContinue reading “Small stone, Vol. 2, #8”

New fiction from Bill Roorbach

Bill Roorbach has announced on his blog, Bill and Dave’s Cocktail Hour, that his new novel, The High Side, is scheduled to appear in print next spring. I can’t tell you how excited I am by this: I’ve long been a big fan of Bill — his writing but also his nature, because he’s oneContinue reading “New fiction from Bill Roorbach”

A Writer’s Notebook: “mentor texts”

I think I might accidentally have started a new novel. It doesn’t look like much in this exercise, I admit, but believe me, it’s frighteningly large inside my brain. I don’t have time for this right now, frankly, and I’m going to have to put this on hold for a while (I might save itContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “mentor texts””

Ask an author: Lori Ann Bloomfield

My friend Lori Ann Bloomfield, of The Last River Child fame and author of that Elvis story I liked to a while back, is opening up the floodgates to reader questions over at her First Line blog. Got a burning question about writing, reading, or publishing? Go visit her blog and drop her a lineContinue reading “Ask an author: Lori Ann Bloomfield”

A Writer’s Notebook: dream journal

I can’t explain why, but I woke up with this in my head: Like everyone else, the caricaturist had good days and bad days. On good days, the people would laugh and clap their hands, touch his shoulder, would point to their hairdos or their cocked grins and say, “Oh, that’s me exactly! That’s meContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: dream journal”

Photo blog 46

  I’m posting this heart to represent the fragility of my heart as I watch the news this week, and to represent the huge sense of compassion I feel for all sentient beings all over the planet but, this week, especially for the people of Bahrain, Libya, and Japan. Please be safe, please be peaceful,Continue reading “Photo blog 46”

Doctor, doctor: a coda

If there was a weak spot in my number-crunching comparison of MDs and PhDs from last week, it was in the accounting of how many hours a typical academic PhD works in a week. I’m confident of the numbers I offered — an average of 60 hours a week — but those numbers were basedContinue reading “Doctor, doctor: a coda”