A.B. Alvarez's Blog

As I write these brief words I am in a hotel in North Andover, MA waiting to go to breakfast and then head into Boston and spend time with my favorite daughter (okay, my only daughter) checking out the sights she has seen a number of times and that I have seen just a few.

Quincy Market. The Library. Faneuil Hall.

That and food.

I have been accused at various times of my life (and at work) of being a foodie. Now, what the absolutely definition of a foodie is escapes me (I supposed I’ll hav...

Selfie of ABA

Is it allowed for me to complement a fellow author who has been around for years, but who I only recently discovered (insert appropriate blushing)?

Allowed or not, this is a bit if a fanboy post and review of the Dean Koontz novel The Silent Corner. Though published in 2017 (for a total of 5 books in total so far) I found it recommended in the myriad of newsletters I receive, and sometimes even read, which rather caught me by surprise.

Really, who hasn’t heard of Dean Koontz? I...

[image error] Image courtesy of Gokul VR via Pexels

When you get up in the morning, what is the first thing you think of?

I usually think about work. I hate admitting that, but welcome to the 21st century.

Other mornings I wake up remembering something funny my daughter had told me. Or something my brother told me. Or my sister. Or George.

This morning I woke up thinking of Inception.
No, not the way the creature from alien reproduces. The movie. Inception.

It is interesting to note that one of Christopher...

So the Thanksgiving rush is over and now the post-Thanksgiving insanity has begun.

I know because I jumped right in.

Leather jacket for 70% off?��Check.

Comedy calendar for nothing off? ��Check.

Stay Wars branded vest and yoga pants?��Check. (No, not for me)

High-end Tesla convertible with custom paint job, and low riders for $250,000.00?��Check��(sorry, just kidding)

What really has me going (aside from having had a curbside seat to the��Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade) is the discovery...

Public domain picture by Sheila Brown

This is a short one…Promise!

So for those denizens of the United States: Happy Thanksgiving! We can look at each other with the same blank stares we give each other every year as we realize the year is 11/12 over (that’s eleven twelfths, not November 12).

For those of you not from the US: please come and visit! We have food from all over the world including your neighborhood, but it tastes better over here. Really. It’s not about tourism dollars. And we...

So there I was minding my own business, arriving home late as usual, when what do my wandering eyes have appeared but (no, not reindeer) a glowing globe!

No, seriously. A large translucent globe floating near the shore of the Hudson.

Here is a picture of it the next morning.

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And another one.

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And another one.

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What could this glowing object be that had magically appeared before me?

I looked around, and while there were various people wandering the area, no one seemed concerned about this rat...

Free Fiction: My Name is Seth
by Serena B. Miller

Whatever happened to the angels who saved Lot’s family? Well one of them is still around…

���My Name is Seth,��� by��author��Serena B. Miller, is free on this website/newsletter��for one week only. The story is��also available as a free ebook download by clicking��here.

My Name is Seth
Serena B. Miller

My name is Seth. I do not know how old I am. Nor do I know where I came from. All I know is that I ha...

Free Fiction: Protecting the Wreck
by Lindley Valcarcel

Zara hated that the crew was wary of their new home. Its location in the middle of nowhere made the abandoned����station an ideal place for them to hunker down and��live while they worked out where their next��meal would coming from. What she didn’t count on were the ghosts.

���Protecting the Wreck,��� by��author��Lindley Valcarcel, is free on this website/newsletter��for one week only. The story is��also available for downlo...

It has been my absolute pleasure to work with all of the authors in��Beyond the Door��and look forward to the next 3 volumes where we will be writing where no authors have written before (well, maybe they have, but not that often. At least not as often as us. And we’re only going once. And we’re doing it in an abandoned farm house. I bet they’ve never done it in an abandoned farm house. Write stories, I mean).

For today’s newsletter I was able to chat briefly with award-winning author...

A Jack o’ Lantern made for the Holywell Manor Halloween celebrations in 2003. Photograph by Toby Ord on 31 Oct 2003. {{cc-by-sa-2.5}} I hope this post gets to you while it is still October. I am writing this on October 1 as I listen to the seagulls outside my window making whatever-sound-it-is-that-seagulls-make and the sky is still quite gray from a rather extensive cloud cover. The days have been having��a hard time staying at a predictable temperature and I have been...