In my Senior year at Durrett High School, I asked a very pretty girl to go to the Prom with me. All my buddies were going to the Prom and had dates already. So, I spotted a girl who sat across the class from me in Humanities and just up and asked her. My actions... Continue Reading →
M.J. Downing. The hot rods are in town, now, for the NSRA, and we did our annual trip out to Mike Linnig’s Seafood last night to check out the pre-show rally. Two years ago, we made that visit with my brother-in-law, Dan Krupp, who just recently passed away, and last night, I had the feeling... Continue Reading →
This morning, I had the great fortune of seeing a Mashable article on my newsfeed about Dacre Montgomery, our much despised and feared Billy of Stranger Things. The article mentions a recent Instagram post by Dacre Montgomery that starts out “When I was a kid, I was lost.” The picture that goes with the article... Continue Reading →
Just recently, having submitted the first full draft of the second Watson novel to my publishers, Burns and Lea Media, I have gone back to a coming-of-age novel, with the working title, Starling. It’s a sea change, one of those moments where I must get my head into a better, clearer place for another project that... Continue Reading →
Steven Pressfield wrote The Gates of Fire, one of the best novels I’ve ever read. Like Bernard Cornwell, Pressfield has earned my trust. History comes alive in his hands. And, yes, Pressfield has written books not nearly as good as “Gates” or as successful as The Legend of Bagger Vance. But he has earned... Continue Reading →
M.J. Downing Now that my “UnDead Client” has hit the streets and some few folks are going through it, I know someone will ask me, “Why Zombies and Sherlock Holmes?” My first response would be to rephrase the question into, “Why zombies and the Whitechapel Murders?” which were more numerous and of nearly the same... Continue Reading →
Once there was a young fellow who had been ghosted by a woman he loved. As with most ‘ghostings,’ those sudden, unexplained, one-sided terminations in relationships, there were many reasons for it. This young fellow, whom we shall call Andrew, lacked the ability to simply let it go, which was quite bad for him. After... Continue Reading →
Above, you can see a screenshot of my favorite author, J.R.R.Tolkien. This shot was taken in his early days, which are also the subject of the new biopic that bears his name. If you are a devoted fan of this author, I urge you to go see this movie. It is beautifully shot, paced, edited... Continue Reading →
I want to spoil nothing about this movie for anyone, and I will write more about it when folks who care to have gone to see it. For now, I will simply quote J.R.R. Tolkien: A fairy tale “does not deny the existence of...sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy... Continue Reading →
Yeah, I know. “Ramble On,” is older than dirt. I heard it first when I was fifteen, which was back in the late Pleistocene Era. It was the day I took the PSAT, had a fever of 103, and went on my first blind date. Ot was one of the worst days I had in... Continue Reading →
MJ Downing’s Place 