J.B. Sommerset

"A January Evening" by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 This week I let my inner isolationist take the wheel for the quote. This one is from one of my old works, but I think it is more relevant today than it ever was when the world wasn't such a weird place. Hope you get some insight from this quote. "An axe, a saw, and a dog are much more a friend to the wise man than most of the persons of this world." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

This post is for those of you here in the states, not my friends over seas. To the rest of the free world, I feel obligated to apologize for what comes next, because it’s not just going to affect us. It will have ripples that will change everything. This election was the “go ahead” for the Putins, the Kim Jongs, and the Victor Orbans of the world. For that, as an American, I am sorry. To start with, I am so utterly disappointed in so many people today. I did not vote for him, I voted for Harris. For me, the choice was obvious, and oddly enough, it had nothing to do with politics- we’ve been down that road before with this man, he lied then, like we knew he would. Last night we cast our ballots and let the statistics show the nature of our character and basic values we care about. America voted a 34-time felon, twice impeached, con artist into office. We vapidly put the keys to the country in the hands of a narcissistic mad-man and his cronies. A man, who, by our own adjudication sh...

Well it's that time again, this week has been busy and I haven't had the time to find something new for the audio book of the week. In part because I have been binging on short stories, this week I have been revisiting one of my favorites " Thomas Ligotti ". Such a juicy and plump set of works. He is a dark delight, and there is a lot of his stuff that I just haven't got to yet, so hear is a new one, at least for me. Enjoy, "The Red Tower" by Thomas Ligotti.  Cheers!

"Orange Rays" by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Sometimes we meet people who just can't let things go no matter how small and irrelevant to the rest of their life. They become fixated on those things and inflate them into HUGE battles that didn't need to be fought. These people are "shit stirrers". You'll know them because they will be proud of the fact that they use their "stick" to stir things up. Sometimes you might hurt their feelings when you acknowledge this trait because they don't see that they are the ones who start these things, they are placed into them by other people. They will complain about how people see them, about the image they have, the one they created. I have this quote I came up with  along time ago to encapsulate these people: "You can't show up to the party with a big moist shit stick and expect people think that you are the baker." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Hey gang, it's been a while since I posted an interview with an author. I have posted interviews with authors before, and even this particular author, but not in a very long time. And being that this is one of my favorite authors, the wonderfully weird Kurt Vonnegut , author of such works as " Slaughter House Five ", " Player Piano ", and " Cat's Cradle ", I had to give it a go and put it up for you guys. For those of you who have never read any of his works, shame on you! Go out and get a couple of his novels and dive right in! Hope you enjoy this interview. Cheers!

Thimble Flower by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Sometimes quotes can be super formulaic and that can be annoying, but sometimes just because it's annoying doesn't make it less profound. One of the most common ones is: "If you don't learn to master your rage, your rage will become your master." There is an old Ben Stiller movie that pointed this out, it's called  "Mystery Men" . That movie was okay, it gave me a chuckle, but he was right about this. Most of the great quote writers do this. I am not great, but I have a couple of these formulaic little bastards in my notebooks, so here's one for the day: "Be specific to the particulars of your craft, but also, be particular to the specifics of your craft." J.B. Sommerset. Cheers!

That's right, I started " House Of The Dragon " season 2. Let's talk about it, like hard, real hard because it does a whole lot right, especially in todays world where screenwriters and showrunners have completely forgotten how to write a good story and then translate it to the screen. Most modern renditions of my favorite childhood stories are so bad that when I watch them I can smell the sour grape and watermelon vape fumes of the douche-people who wrote them. Because that's the kind of image modern literature and film puts in my head. A douchey one with a whole lot of vape-fumes. What an image, it I could describe it, it would look like this: It's this image of an androgynes guy sitting outside the Star-bucks. He's got whispers of chin hair on his prepubescent jawline, and poorly applied black nail polish on his hands. There's an uncentered man-bun on his head, a snake of ratty coils, unwashed hair that smells of pot smoke. Leaning on his tiny littl...

Well, it's that time again, the audio book of the week, although due to broken links these things are not as reliable as they used to be. This week I was exposed to the Disney film- " Tarzan ". Although it's a great kids movie, the Disney show doesn't really capture even half of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books by the same name. Of which, most people don't realize that Tarzan of the apes had a butt-load of adventures. Tarzan appeared in 24 stories written by the OG himself and numerous adaptations by other authors who loved his work! So, forgive me if this is a repost of an older book, there are too many to keep up with. This week I chose " Tarzan the Untamed ". Enjoy this turn of the century goodness.  Cheers!

  "Trillium Goes Pink" By J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 There's not much to say this week, busy is as busy does- super busy to be exact. So here I pulled something from some of my literature I thought was a good quote. Here it is, the quote of the week.  “Always keep promises, and always make true apologies. Do not exhaust their credit with overuse...” J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "Orange Juice Sunset" By J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 It doesn't quite feel like summer yet, at least not where I live, but I get the feeling it's coming- that is with hope. Hope is an interesting thing, an intangible piece of magic in an sometimes dark world. Hope guides us through dark waters without asking much. This week is all about hope. So here it is, your quote of the week. “Always guard your hope because without it you are hopeless.” J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Sometimes it's hard to keep the bi-weekly audio book up because often there are broken links, bad readings, missing chapters, and so on. A lot of the time they don't stay up because of this. They will get flagged and I will remove them. I hope that doesn't happen with this weeks audiobook. Speaking of... This week I chose to post a different, more contemporary book from a very prolific writer- James Patterson. I hope you enjoy! Cheers!

"Little White Flowers": By J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 I was having a conversation about religion the other day with a good friend who also just happens to be Christian, it's not their fault, it's hereditary. All jokes aside, they are a good person, and we have been friends for a while and we have always butted heads around one topic. That topic is church, and being that I am who I am I said some things- interesting things. Some of which I have been saying for years but never had the wherewithal to write down.  This time I wrote some of them down. So here you are, the quote of the week: "The difference between spirituality and religion is that Spirituality will help you find your God, religion will help you find someone else's..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

I have talked about this subject before, and it's critical to good story telling. I don't know how many more times I will bring this up, but I will... So just be prepared for it.  This topic is going to come back like the blood everyone thought they totally got cleaned up, but under luminal and black light? Yep, it's still there. It will come back like the drunk guy all of us in the car know we hit but aren't sure is dead. Or that stalker that sneaks back into our house after we got the restraining order. The one that sits quietly in the dark waiting to talk in a distant and mysterious tone... you get the idea. The technique I am speaking of is, of course, the " show don't tell " technique. The "TLDR" is simple, it is a narrative technique that assumes the audience aren't morons and also that they can figure things out for themselves. Things like subtext, language usage, foreshadowing, use of senses, thoughts, feelings, (ad nauseum) the get t...

"Foggy Birch" (Photo credit: J.B. Sommerset) This time, I thought I would get all profound and philosophical with my quote of the week. For the most part I am a minimalist, and don't like a lot of extraneous detail when it comes to my writing and my art. However, occasionally I go out on a limb and post something complicated and "floral". This one is from one of my many works in progress. Hope you all like it. "Let it be said that we are all children; age is an assumption, it is relative to those who have aged. There are always older, wiser and more adult things in this world, and when we are among them, we are without the insights of maturation. In those times, we are children, no matter how old we are." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

When I was a kid I used to read every fantasy book I could get my hands on. Short stories, novels, comics, graphic novels, it didn't matter. Among those were some of the classics. I have posted a number of them over the years here on my site. But there is one author I can't seem to recall ever posting, and I really don't know why. If this is somehow a repost, I apologize. I don't think it is. This week we are going back to the The land of Narnia . I say back to, because most of you out there are very familiar with " The Chronicles of Narnia " by C.S. Lewis . If you haven't read the books, you most likely have seen one of the many film adaptations of them. My biggest disappointment was that only four of the books were ever made into movies, which is a shame because my two favorites were never even considered- " The Horse and his Boy " and " The Magician's Nephew ". I like " The Last Battle ", but it isn't my favorite. S...

"Mud and Snow" (Photo Credit: J.B. Sommerset ) Sometimes it pays to have a "down to Earth quote" one that's really note sophisticated or complex, one that is simple, but makes since in ways that the common man can understand. I have a whole section in my notebooks dedicated to this kind of quote. I call it "the simple man section". Given that this is another election year, I thought this one fit the bill, enjoy.  "If you are going to be lazy and cut corners, you probably shouldn't do it while wiping your ass." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Okay, for some reason this didn't post like it should have 2 weeks ago, so I am going to make up for it and post it now. Moving forward these will be on schedule, I am adding them to my workflow. Anyway, moving forward. We all know how much I loves me some Mark Twain , I have posted a lot of his works, form " Tom Sawyer " to " Huck Finn ", but for some reason I have never posted this one, which is weird, it sort of falls into his well known works. So, here it is, this week I am posting " The Prince and The Pauper ", Bon, appetite! Cheers!

"The Ocean of Cotton" (Photo Credit J.B. Sommerset 2023) Here's a literary quote for all you writers out there. For a while most of the things I was writing had a fair amount of satire in them. I don't put as much satire in my work any more, it's still there, but it has been toned down quite a bit and here's why... "The problem with satire is that the people whom it is intended for rarely understand it..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

While straggling through the wilderness of Netflix shows the other day I came across " The Three Body Problem ". I know of story, mostly of the Chinese novel   by the same name. It's on my reading list, I just haven't gotten to it yet. My list is pretty big, so I prioritize which ones I will read first. This one was high on my list, and that hasn't changed. I suspect there is more in the book than there was in the show. Normally I don't like to watch the show before I read the book, but in this case, I didn't see any good options- There's not much on Netflix I haven't seen, at least from a critical stand point. So when I see something new, I typically like to give it a spin. A lot of my friends recommended the book, so I knew something about it. It went on the old reading list when it was first translated. I decided to watch the show which made it to my plate first.  " The Three Body Problem " is an award winning Science Fiction book by ...

"The Dying Light" (Photo Credit J.B. Sommerset 2023) Sometimes it helps to remember that our habits and behaviors become us. It's hard to see it happening but we can become the things we hate in such a way. "Do not practice a thing that doesn't bring joy to your heart, for you might just become good at it..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!