The backstory of author Leo C. Frisk, Jr is nearly as intriguing as the story itself. Frisk somewhat stumbled into becoming an author. Learning that he was going blind when his son was just 2 years old, he would make up stories for his son, Joseph, with a book in his hand, pretending to read […]
I think that everyone has an important story to tell. Some may be better told than others, but all would be intriguing from an outside perspective. Ned Handy’s story is part of probably one of the most defining moments of world history: World War II. A flight engineer in the Air Force, Handy takes readers on a fantastic […]
College kids and books go together like a keg and a red cup. You just can’t have one without the other! But if you’re sick of spending time in your college bookstore or would rather spend your (or your parents’) hard-earned money locally instead of with an online retailer, here are some wonderful local bookstores […]
Providence native, noted historian and librarian, and the author of Young America: the Flowering of Democracy in New York City (1998), Ark of the Liberties: America and the World (2008) and Martin Van Buren (2005), Ted Widmer, has produced a thoroughly entertaining history of Brown University that is well-written, impeccably researched and benefits from copious footnotes. (Disclosure: Ted Widmer and Rudy […]
Fall is my absolute favorite season. The temperature is at a close to perfect level — not so hot and humid that sweat drenches everything nearly immediately and not too cold that everyone is bundled up like the common Eskimo. Football season is underway, baseball playoffs are in full swing, and hockey and basketball are […]
I’m sure people can spend hours debating what they feel is the most difficult part of writing, and there will be many different answers. My personal struggle focuses on the idea itself. I usually try to think of something somewhat outlandish that quickly gets out of hand and makes no sense. Karen Lee Boren, a […]
A number of Motif authors, illustrators and affiliated talents took part in the recent “Write like Lovecraft” contest created by The Providence Journal. What it is about our staff that draws such a disproportionate number to the weird and creepy is a subject on which we shall decline to speculate. However, to help their efforts […]
When the ominous box arrived on my doorstep, I didn’t even notice. I was in the middle of a sale. A very well-dressed woman took a liking to the antique grandfather clock in the window. I just signed for the box absently while running her credit card. I didn’t even look at it until almost […]
I. The Plan “Knowledge wants to be free!” The increasingly impassioned assistant professor defended his plan to the chief librarian who had summoned him to this awkward and unpleasant meeting in a room filled with dust that seemed to have collected slowly and inexorably since slimy, tentacled tetrapods first evolved to crawl from water onto […]
The crow refused to blink. The dark, hard obsidian of its eyes conveyed an inhuman awareness of its surroundings, acute but soulless, absorbing light from the abandoned mill and the soft, rotting bricks where the feathered beast perched. Its rapt attention recalled its Jurassic ancesters, raptorous hunters who had dominated their food chain. The dark, […]