Covid-19 has, if not forced, then inspired us to find new ways to fill our at-home time. There are a lot of things I need to do, like clean out closets and drawers, but I just don’t have the energy to do that. Besides, I’ll wear that sweater again sometime. I’m sure I will. That style is making a comeback. I’ve always used the library, whether for audios when I take a trip or books to read at home that I don’t have to buy to fill my already overflowing bookcases. I have books I’ve bought through the years that I haven’t yet read, but I love my Kindle and prefer reading on it. Now the library has become the go-to place to read books by downloading from Overdrive. My library gives us fourteen days to read our chosen work. My friend and I have been storming through Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. Fortunately, there are eighteen books in the series. A couple of the early books aren’t available to download from Amazon on my Kindle because of their format, but I’ve been abl...

Next to running in the park with my two best friends, spending time at the small library on the corner of my street was my favorite thing to do in the summer when I was growing up. My girlfriends and I would go there almost every other day to get a pile of books to read at some comfortable place, often a park about a mile away. We were into bike riding, too. Fast-forward a lot of years to when I started my writing career as a journalist. Then I wasn’t just going to the library to get books to read for myself or for my kids. This was a time when I relied heavily on libraries, and the wonderful reference librarians, to help me when I needed facts and figures for articles and my nonfiction books. (Kudos to the librarians at the Plano Public Library. They saved my bacon more than once.) During that time I wrote nine books for  Rosen Publishing that included Coping With Weapons and Violence in School and on your Streets, and the librarians proved invaluable in steering me towar...

Kicking off the month of thankfulness, I express my gratitude for books. Where would I be if I had not found books? I've spent many hours pondering the reason I was able to escape the fate of so many in my family: stuck in a small town, addicted to drugs, living with an abusive spouse, dependent on welfare, in many cases with a felony record due to desperate acts. I hid from my chaotic upbringing in the pages of books. Instead of drugs and alcohol, I became addicted to learning. Books were my friends instead of the wrong crowd. Stories introduced me to a world beyond the ten mile radius our lack of reliable car limited us to. We didn't have computers, much less internet, back then. Even if we did, we couldn't have afforded it. Books introduced me to heroes who fought their way out of traumatic circumstances to thrive. They taught me that no matter how downtrodden you are, you can break free and construct the life you want. That monsters could be slayed. They ...