John A. Heldt

Since publishing The Mine , my first novel, more than twelve years ago, I have focused mostly on producing ebooks -- for obvious reasons. Eb...

I don't normally go barefoot while wearing a suit, but I did just that on Saturday when I married off my son, Matthew, on a beach. Along...

I first learned about artificial intelligence (AI) in the seventh grade. While reading " EPICAC ," a short story by Kurt Vonnegut,...

I have never been to Philadelphia. Once, in 1984, while driving with a college friend from Connecticut to Washington, D.C., I entered the ci...

The road ahead looks different now. Three weeks into retirement, it looks more like Nevada's Route 50, the "loneliest road in Ameri...

I started as a paperboy. Sometime in 1974, at the ripe old age of 12, I began delivering the Seattle Times in a suburban subdivision that c...

The trilogy is now ten days old. The Duties and Dreams ebook came out November 9, the paperback yesterday. Even the Second Chance boxed s...

Be careful what you wish for. The warning, from The Old Man and Death , one of Aesop's Fables, is one of the oldest themes in literat...

For an obvious reason, I rarely watch a television series twice. A series, unlike a movie or even a book, represents a serious investment in...

It took a while — three months, to be exact — but I finished ahead of schedule. With a final burst on Friday, I finished the first draft of ...

The subtitle tipped me off. Preceded by an asterisk, it told me most of what I needed to know about a riveting comedy series. I say most —...

For some, Alsace is a backwater. Tucked in a remote corner of France, next to Germany and Switzerland, it is a region often overlooked by tr...

For authors, summer is supposed to be the quiet season. It is supposed to be the time we set work aside, take rejuvenating vacations, and ta...

I've been in a dog mood lately. My last dog, Mocha, passed away six years ago, and I miss her terribly. Because of circumstances — Las V...

If I have learned one thing as a parent, it is never to underestimate. Children with drive will find ways to succeed and shine. They will no...

In the beginning, it was my go-to venue, the place where the Northwest Passage series developed. Washington state was a secondary setting i...

The second act is usually the most difficult to write. In literature, as in life, it is the tough center of a story, the important and somet...

Of all the tools and techniques I employ as a writer, it is the one I use the most. When I experience writer's block, I take a walk. I...

The draft is done! At 128,700 words, it is a bit smaller than projected, but it is still big. Annie's Apple , the second book in the Sec...

The book, now seventy percent complete, is going to be a big one. With 90 chapters and a projected 132,000 words, it will trail only The Mem...

It is the gold standard of tragedies. For more than 110 years, the sinking of the RMS Titanic has inspired books, movies, and conspiracy th...

This year was like the proverbial month of March. It came in like a lion and is going out like a lamb. That's fine with me. After ten ye...