Author: Jonathan Bell

It all comes down to story telling. That’s what got them all going from Homer to Shakespeare to Dickens to Eudora Welty—to all the many dozens of great ones, far too many for me to cope with. It’s the love of any good story, in and of itself, its hold on listeners and readers, its… Continue reading The Teller From The Tale →

THE WRITING OF SMALL GAMES OF CHANCE My novel of hard labor. Small Games of Chance is set on one day, Annunciation Sunday in 1928. It revolves directly or indirectly around May Skinner a woman in her late 20s with seven men to care for, her husband GB plus his three sons from his previous… Continue reading Writing Small Games Of Chance →

This article comes from the website of Explore Southern History.com. My father’s mother was May Skinner Bell, whose granfather was the John Wesley Skinner referenced in this article. There is some written evidence that he was also a Union spy imbedded in the Confederate war during the war and then quickly changed sides just as… Continue reading Last Man Killed →

The novel L. O. V. E. was the easiest for me to write. I came to it a year after finishing from The Prairie Dancers, my first novel, where I had to invent my way through conceptualizing what a novel is, can be, and how a novel works. I had my fresh graduate degree in… Continue reading Ambulance Drivers Of the Spanish Civil War →

Whilst—ah how detestable a word-- on the subject of inspiration for L . O. V. E., see previous post, I’ll back up briefly to dwell  on the seeds for The Prairie Dancers.   While many have found it appealing  some of its readers have found it too over the top.  That’s good.  It’s what I wanted for… Continue reading Doing The Possum Trot →

One very cold night in New York, in January, in Manhattan, in the East Village, a young man was murdered. There were many murders that night, as on every night back in 1979 so his would likely have gone unremarked, not newsworthy, not even worthy of a paragraph in theNew York Post. I can’t recall his… Continue reading Cold Night Murder →

ADDENDUM:  FREE AT LAST My life’s valuables are given here.  I can set no greater price tag.  That they are free in no way means they come cheaply.  They did came to me free in the package that made me.  I merely pass them along. If the work provokes a smile, better a small laugh,… Continue reading ADDENDUM: FREE AT LAST →

FREE AT LAST My novels on this site are free to download .  They are in PDF.  To best use put whatever you take on a memory stick and take it to a copy center.  Have them copy it off, best is recto verso, four pages to a sheet.  Any copy center can then cut… Continue reading FREE AT LAST →

You are on the dedicated site for my four novels and seven of my short stories. My web log begins here also. To the cheering crowd awaiting this auspicious grand opening I say ‘welcome home.’   First, this is where I am. At home. I sit writing the first entry of my virgin blog in… Continue reading Where Am I →

Looking back, the experience of writing my first novel, The Prairie Dancers, clearly involved euphoric episodes, part of my bipolar syndrome.  I recall times o sheer exuberance, flying high as on hash over my hand written pages.   It is the one novel where I followed an outline of sort, thinking that was what a… Continue reading Discovered, The Prairie Dancers →