Author Archives: williamjcobb

Back From Beyond: On Miles and Miles of the Ridiculous Names of RVs

So for most of July I’ve been traveling in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, rafting the Green River in Utah and then backpacking in Yellowstone, which was all lovely and adventurous, but going from place to place was a drive nearing … Continue reading

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Rafting the Green River & Digging for Trilobites: What We Do in the West

So I haven’t been blogging for a while because I’ve been manning the oars of a white water (well, sometimes brown, green, or just a little frothy) raft in central Utah, the 84-mile stretch of the Green River from Sand … Continue reading

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On Morris Collins's Knockout Debut Novel, "Horse Latitudes," and the Anxiety of Influence, Part 2

So in my review/comments about Kent Wascom’s debut novel The Blood of Heaven I mentioned how the press release hyped it as being similar to Cormac McCarthy, which it is, stylistically, but how I don’t think his feet should be … Continue reading

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Guest Blog Post on Dan Bloom's "CliFi" Blog

So I have a guest blog post/interview on Dan Bloom’s “CliFi” blog today, here. As I mention in the post, I’m working on a novel set during a catastrophic wildfire, and there’s one going on right now west of where … Continue reading

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Review of Kent Wascom's "The Blood of Heaven," Plus a Mission Debrief

So my review of Kent Wascom’s impressive debut novel, The Blood of Heaven, appears today in the Dallas Morning News, here. It’s a rollicking book, and I have to say I keep thinking of that Hatfields & McCoys miniseries whenever … Continue reading

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On "The Road," Choking on Smoke

So I’ve owned a house in southern Colorado for ten years, and during that time have seen our summer weather go up and down, some years wet and some years dry, only it always seems to be trending toward hotter … Continue reading

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On Kent Haruf's "Benediction," Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" and the Colorado Fires, Again

So this post should be a candidate for some kind of parlor game like “Try to pinpoint the logical connection (though there may not be one)”: I finished Kent Haruf’s Benediction, which includes a scare at the end (I won’t … Continue reading

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On Kent Haruf's new novel, "Benediction," and Anticipation for the Upcoming New Coen Brothers' Film, "Inside Llewyn Davis"

So Kent Haruf’s new novel, Benediction, came out last February, but I waited until I came to Colorado to buy it, because I know Kent. He lives near Salida, about fifty miles from where my summer (writing) home is, and … Continue reading

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Life Over Tech in Santa Fe and Beyond

So it seems I haven’t had a minute to blog in the last couple weeks, mainly from being too busy with “real” life—as opposed to the virtual world we often live in these days—in a visit to Santa Fe, New … Continue reading

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James Franco Does William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying," Plus Cormac McCarthy & the Kiss of Death

So it’s buzz-building time for James Franco’s film version of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, which has to be one of the goofiest Southern Gothic classics of all, published in 1930, early in Faulkner’s career. Famous for its image of … Continue reading

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