No reader can possibly be prepared for this blog author to include a snippet from a June 26, 1971 letter to my friend Sabin Russell. I didn’t realize at the time how important this paragraph would be in my life. … Continue reading →
It’s not time for a final assessment of the Jack Commer, Supreme Commander series, but after completing the first draft of the seventh and (probably) last book, I’m beginning to reflect on the long journey from The Martian Marauders to … Continue reading →
A few days ago I realized that of the six published Jack Commer, Supreme Commander novels, I’d made draft covers of the last four when working on early versions. Often I’ll make an EPUB or MOBI version of a draft, … Continue reading →
I’ve already written about The Blue Notebook, my fifth grade stories that channeled fascinating new energy and began defining me as a writer. Recently I was compelled by author’s karma to make an eBook out of The Blue Notebook, and … Continue reading →
Mike: And now we come to one of our most interesting and perhaps difficult interviews, with Jack Commer, Supreme Commander himself. Jack: So what makes you think this will be a difficult interview? Mike: Well, I guess we haven’t really … Continue reading →
I’d gotten through several Jack Commer novels before I realized that simply referring to the “seventeen suns of the Alpha Centaurian Empire” wouldn’t hack it for future works if I had no idea which stars the Centaurians had conquered. Although … Continue reading →
A few years ago I resurrected my first attempt at a novel, Trip to Mars, fifty-five penciled pages in a small yellow notebook with numerous crude illustrations. The 2,646-word story I produced as a sixth grader in the spring of … Continue reading →
If anyone had paid attention to Jack Commer’s son before this day, it was to jeer that the kid had emerged non compos mentis from his stunt in Alpha Centauri, that he was an egomaniacal fool and that it served … Continue reading →
1. The Hospital I’m not sure which copy of The Tower Treasure I read in the hospital in late February or early March 1960. The lower one pictured is the 1927 edition, the middle the 1959 revised book, and the … Continue reading →
1. Concerning My Ongoing, Erroneous, but Somehow Charming Conception That the Solar System Really Does Look Like This 1959 Space Map This childhood map of the solar system has remained locked in my mind since I was seven. Whenever I … Continue reading →
