wondoloski

The Hoosac Tunnel Murders begins when seventeen-year old Ginger O

Several years ago I woke up and it was over. Retirement. No longer travelling to Drury High School in the morning darkness of the Berkshire winter or driving home to the serenade of the car defroster; I began living a perpetual ＂snow day.＂ However, I had two problems: Golf courses close in the winter and advertisements to ＂Go south, old man!＂ interested me not in the least. I love Berkshire winters. So, I filled them by reading. And then reading some more. I was having the time of my life discovering new authors and new literary genres. I was a small boy in the North Adams Public Library candy store. But, I wasn’t a small boy. Of course I had to complicate things. I didn’t just enjoy, or not enjoy stories. I had to rip them apart and analyze why. I couldn’t help myself. It was in my Zoologist’s blood. It didn’t take long to compile a mental list of what I valued in a writer’s style and substance. Over time, items were added and discarded. Then one day I decided it was time to either put up or shut up. Could I do better than the authors I’d so carefully scrutinized? Almost as well? Could I be lousy? Could I finish a chapter, a paragraph? There was only one way to find out. This is how I got myself into this...I just couldn’t help it.