Bernard Malamud's writer/psychotherapist daughter has written a very insightful piece on what stops people from writing or, for that matter, from other imaginative, self-expressive projects.  I hesitate to use the word "creative" after reading what she has to say about it. Janna Malamud Smith draws from her new book, An Absorbing Errand: How Artists and Craftsmen Make […] Read More

That's the question at the heart of my novel Revelation.  The blue-sky church-steeple cover wasn't getting across the grit, darkness, struggle, risk involved. So I've put a new one on the Kindle edition.  (The old hard copies have long been out of print.)  See what you think.  I think it better represents the story.      Read More

My upcoming novel gets some early and sizzling attention on home turf:  From Wilmington, NC's Starnewsonline.com: Bookmarks “Cobalt Blue” Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 5:58 by Ben Steelman   Joining the host of area authors with books coming out this spring is Wilmington native Peggy Payne. Her new novel “Cobalt Blue” is due to be […] Read More

 An 88 year-old veteran, mill supervisor, father and farmer was buried in a small town churchyard in North Carolina today.  His daughter is a close friend of mine and so I stood at that service for the 21-gun salute that blasted as the church's flag flew at half-mast to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., and as Barack Obama was inaugurated for […] Read More

Read this one afternoon on the coast of Costa Rica.  The picture sticks with me as a way to be courageous while simply sitting still. From Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa: "I, for a moment, thought the situation might be awkward to him. But as we sat together in the afternoon sun, in no way pretending […] Read More

In the first place, I wouldn't have expected to find such a story in Coastal Living magazine, and then I saw it was by a writer I know, Durham's Barry Yeoman. The story angle that made the piece fit into a magazine about coasts was the fact that it all took place near the water in Cadiz, Spain, where "Atlantic waves […] Read More

Elvis and I share a birthday, this past Tuesday.  My brothers have always been good about reminding me of this auspicious connection.  But that's not all. This week as I turned 64, I learned the whole humbling history of the day.  Facebook Friend Robert McDowell connected me with Wikipedia’s account of my birthday from the year […] Read More

Zen and the Art of Tightrope Walking explains today about the uncanny appeal of the person who might be characterized as "a hot mess." Now, one could view this as objectification or, as I do, the recognition that sizzling attractiveness does not require conventional symmetrical orderly beauty. At a spa where I was teaching writing a few years ago there […] Read More

It could require some courage — a deep breath at least –to show up in public at a store and take a seat at a reading for a book titled Wanting Sex Again: How to Rediscover Your Desire and Heal a Sexless Marriage. I was there for the kickoff reading at the North Raleigh Barnes & Noble  because […] Read More

It seems I was waiting to round the corner of Christmas to see clearly to March 29.  Up until Christmas, that date was a long way away.  No longer.  The publication date of my upcoming novel is now almost upon me, and it's suddenly clear to me that I'm running behind (which wasn't true last […] Read More