Dismas Hardy, the attorney in John Lescroart’s novels, has a cast iron pan he never washes. I was reading about one of his adventures when I decided to someday ask if Dismas has ever come down with a case of botulism. During the Men of Mystery gig at Left Coast Crime 2012, when I found [...] Read More →
Author Archives: kkuhlken
Commercials vs. Ethics
Here’s a thorny problem I have encountered: whether to write about the care and cleaning of cast iron pans or about watching Leave it to Beaver. Since I’m still experimenting with the pans, Beaver gets the nod. First, the backstory. When my big kids were teenagers, we lived (still do) on a cul de sac [...] Read More →
Money, Part 2
My student L wants to write novels but doesn’t quite know how to find the time. She’s a single mom with two daughters who require lots of chauffeuring to sports practices and events. L has a good job, makes good money and can set her own hours. Ideal, or at least handy, for a writer. [...] Read More →
Money, Part One
Yesterday, I met with my tax preparer, which led me to think about money. In Citizen Kane, a reporter remarks to Bernstein, tycoon Kane’s one-time pal and associate, “He made a lot of money.” Bernstein replies, “Well, it’s no trick to make a lot of money… if what you want to do is make a [...] Read More →
Genius
I’m re-posting from last month, as the post apparently ended at the “more” link. So, this time, it’s all here on one page: I was having an identity crisis. So I went to consult with my writer friend Alan Russell and found him in one of his better moods. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have opened the [...] Read More →
I was having an identity crisis. So I went to consult with my writer friend Alan Russell and found him in one of his better moods. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have opened the door. “What do you want?” he said. I nudged him aside and walked in. “I’ve got a problem.” He grumbled, “I’ve got a [...] Read More →
Think
A thousand times I’ve heard or read an experienced writer advising rookie writers that they need to write everyday. Good advice, I suppose, as long as the rookies don’t imagine everything they write should get published. But I’ll propose that what a writer most needs to do is spend more time thinking. Not thinking about [...] Read More →
The Manson Method
Long ago, a guy and girl I knew rode off on a motorcycle. She was seventeen and miffed at her folks for moving from San Diego to L.A. He was a few years older. Up the coast, at a gas station in Big Sur, they argued. He drove off and left her there. Charlie Manson [...] Read More →
Heroes
I’ve always been moved by Christ figures in literature. Some of my favorites are the whiskey priest in The Power and the Glory, Sidney Carton in Tale of Two Cities, and Sonia in Crime and Punishment. Yesterday, I got the shock of recognizing a Christ figure in my own family.
Novels and Entertainments
Graham Greene, one of my favorite writers, considered his fiction to be of two kinds, which he called “entertainments” and “novels”. I’ll buy that distinction. It helps me understand my attitude toward fiction, both as a reader and a writer.