James D. Best

Modern Americans are hazy about our history. With the Fourth of July on the horizon, I thought a cowboy could bring clarity to the origins o...

Writers can be a competitive bunch and can say nasty things about others in their profession. A good barb needs to be pithy and clever. Her...

I love time travel. We’ve all experienced time travel whenever we’ve opened a book and been transported to another place and time....

The Washington Post has an article on “ The 23 most unforgettable last sentences in fiction .” Many critics and readers focus on th...

Last night we rented Crazy Rich Asians based on the book by Kevin Kwan.  I had heard a lot of good things about the film, but I was disapp...

This weekend, I ran across this cartoon. At one time, everyone predicted the electronic books would supplant  the printed variety . I thi...

We have three grandchildren in New York City and we try to visit them as often as we can muster up the energy and coin. Let’s see, w...

Yesterday, the gardener showed up for Spring Cleanup. This morning, I woke to this. Burr! Since the same person does my snow removal,...

WTH Every year, I leave my home in Omaha after Christmas to spend the winter in San Diego. I return each Easter to spend the holiday...

Curiosity.com published a list of writing tips from Mark Twain. Now, Twain never actually published a list, but his letters provide...

Mitchell Corn Palace We recently moved from Arizona to Omaha and are still getting to know the neighborhood. Friends—and sometime relat...

“People don't talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolor left in the rain. “ Bill Bry...

Money is printed by the government, so the faces on our various bills tend to be politicians. Okay, they’re all politicians. Three were not...

JR Sanders posted a Facebook reference to a new reading technology. Instead of words spread across a page or screen, a stream of words is p...

I spent some time this morning with Steve Dancy. I didn’t write a lot of new material, but I did edit the last couple of chapters I’d writt...

Instead of writing and blogging, I've been moving. What a pain. It's been twenty-two years since our last move and I forgot how hard...

I was looking at my recent book sales and saw that a vast majority of them were e-books. Was the oft predicted demise of traditional books u...

One thing. Just one thing. The Telegraph in London reports that “ Scientists find secret to writing a best-selling novel .” Boy, was I ...

We’re putting the finishing touches on our new home in Omaha. We bought a 1948 ranch style house that needed major updating.  In our last t...

I was reading BuzzFeed’s  “ 10 Lovable Things About Brick-And-Mortar Bookstores ,” when I saw a photo that tugged my memory back to my ...