This story has special significance to me. Its premise has remained in my head since I read it years ago and is a factor in my upcoming novel, Asperger.

Blood Music revolves around Vergil Ulam, a research scientist whose laboratory blunder results in an intelligent virus. Brilliant but flawed, he causes the virus to spread, resulting in consequences that are either catastrophic or benevolent, depending on your point of view.

This is more than an apocalyptic tale in which human beings try to...

The “haves” in this world tend to treat the “have-nots” as invisible. Their mute desperation makes us uncomfortable, so we look through them. Kazu Mori, the narrator of Tokyo Ueno Station, is literally invisible. He is dead, his spirit seemingly fated to linger among the homeless people who come and go through the train station and memorial park where he met his end.

Kazu recounts a life of hardship and personal tragedy. Born in 1933, the same year as the Emperor, he took any sort of job he...

This week I'm taking a break from book reviews to share a delightful posting from Anne Tyler's website. Regular readers of this space know how much I love this author. Below is a link where she tells how she comes up with ideas.

Anne Tyler has written twenty-five novels. Her eleventh, Breathing Lessons, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989. This peek into her creative process should resonate with both authors and readers. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

https://annetyler.com/annes-inspiration/