Donald E. Westlake, RIP

Donald Westlake, the prolific mystery novelist, died on New Year’s Eve while on vacation in Mexico. These are sad tidings for those of us who enjoyed his books. The man wrote something like a hundred under his own name as well as several pen names. He also wrote the screenplay for the movie, The Grifters, adapting it from the Jim Thompson novel. Westlake preferred to write his books using a manual typewriter. Given that he wrote an incredible number of pages, his fingers must have been ready for the Olympics.

Well, rest in peace, Mr. Westlake. Your books will be around for years to come.

Published in: on January 2, 2009 at 2:29 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Good For The Goose…

The Grumman Goose was a legendary airplane. It served all types of functions, including shuffling people like Hemingway around the Caribbean. It was a rugged, sturdy design, capable of landing on land and sea, a fine example of great aeronautical engineering. Of course, history marched forward and the goose became a relic. Until… a couple of people set up shop to build them again. Here’s a photo of their Goose:

She may not be the most handsome aircraft, but she does conjure up plenty of emotion. The plane evokes the glory days of aviation, of island hopping, of finding that place that no one else has yet found. Hmmmm…. maybe I’ll write a story featuring this plane. It’s been a long time since I read Lost Horizon.

I sincerely hope this company finds great success. I’d love to see this modern version of the goose flying. Wouldn’t mind flying one myself.

Published in: on December 24, 2008 at 2:37 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Bits of Wisdom

Readers of this blog know that I hold Benjamin Franklin in high esteem as perhaps not only the greatest of Americans to date, but also the first and most wise. Thus, it is only right that I put a few bits of his wisdom here on The Bent Page. The following are a few of my favorites:

Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

 

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

If only these prescriptions were followed more closely. Surely our world would be a better place for all.

Published in: on November 28, 2008 at 8:45 pm  Leave a Comment  
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My Front Office (video)

For those readers of this blog who claim that I don’t really use a fountain pen, please check out the following video. It’s not exactly my front office, but a place across the street from my house in Aruba where I do some writing from time to time. Here’s the video:

That’s a Mont Blanc 146 pen I’m using with Mont Blanc blue ink. Not that you can tell precisely because the video degrades on YouTube. Still, I’m there working away, spilling words onto the page that will eventually get typed into my computer, edited, and hopefully come out of the printer as a worthy story. You never know. However, with a view like this, the words come easier.

Stay tuned, I’ll post some more videos of my writing haunts and fountain pens in action just for fun.

Bon dia from Aruba.

Published in: on November 18, 2008 at 10:32 am  Leave a Comment  
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