James Preston Once upon a time my wife and were doing our second-favorite thing, sitting up late at night reading. Suddenly she yelled something like ARRGH or UGH and threw the book across the room, where the poor thing bounced off the wall and landed on the floor. The cat wisely jumped up and took […]

James Preston There’s an old joke about a tourist in New York who asks a native, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall.” They say to lead off with a joke, right? Well, I’ll lead off with half of a joke that’s older than many of the Writers in the Storm readers. (And notice I did not say, “Stop me […]

James Preston “It’s all personal.”       — Michael Corleone, The Godfather   We’ve all grown up with the image — finger over the button, second hand ticking down as a tense voice says — “3, 2, 1, 0. Blastoff!” It's such an iconic image. I wanted to write about the launch process, because it’s interesting […]

James Preston Plus as a special bonus for the first zillion readers: two updates on an earlier essay! Now what would you pay? So I’m sitting here thinking about writing. I don't want to have to get up because I’ve got a cat on my lap, but it's all right because I’ve got my iPad and […]

James Preston I want to tell you a story. No, not one I wrote, one I lived. This story is an illustration of a lifetime of reading, and a story that I bet you read and say, “Why, yes, I remember a book like that.” This story illustrates the seismic changes that we have witnessed. […]