Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

I wrote a column for the Northfield News about one of my favorite subjects. For a slightly longer version (one that does not adhere to the newspaper’s tight word limit), follow the jump.

I had the rare and wonderful honor last night to discuss “Chief Bender’s Burden” with a book club. They held the meeting in perhaps the nicest house I have ever seen, on Lake Minnetonka, and the members were as welcoming as the scenery was gorgeous. And what questions! Readers always ask such great questions — [...]

Charley Walters — former Major Leaguer and all-star at the St. Paul Pioneer Press — was kind enough to make note of “Chief Bender’s Burden” in his Sunday column. Keep reading well past commentary on Joe Mauer’s employment status.

As I pulled into the post office annex I noticed something I normally wouldn’t: a guy whacking weeds.
Usually, when I’m in the car I flip on the mind’s auto responder. The garbage truck. The jogger. The billboard. I pass them without much thought on the way to the gym, the library, the post office. But [...]

My heartened heart says to gush. But there are so many emotions it’s too early to sort them into anything useful. My fired-up mind says to carp. But if I start in on the pundit poppycock I might never stop. Lesser lobes say to disrespect. But if the candidates (or the candidates’ supporters) are so [...]

One of my favorite chapters in the book is chapter thirteen, which chronicles the day Charles Bender was nearly perfect.
That day — exactly 98 years ago today — Bender faced 27 batters, the absolute minimum a complete-game winning pitcher can face in a nine-inning game. Bender and the Philadelphia Athletics beat the great Napoleon Lajoie [...]

I should just stick to the Web, I know, but too often on election night I am tempted to turn on the tube. It’s like eating at Outback. Sounds like a good idea … until it’s too late. As you wait for the gut bomb to explode, you wonder why you even considered the option.
Last [...]

I have been invited on Comment Please, a long-running mid-day talk show on suburban Philadelphia station WNPV (1440 AM), a Philadelphia Phillies radio affiliate. I’ll chat with Darryl Berger, 20-year host of the respected show — which devotes airtime to everything from local culture to national politics — at about 11:30 a.m. (eastern) on Monday, [...]

The pooch park is a brilliant invention. The savage beast can run as he should, amongst his own, unencumbered, and I don’t have to intervene until blood is spilled or the others go home. It’s even better when the kinder, gentler person in my marriage is there, too, as was the case last night. After [...]

The more I look the more holes I find in my blanket of knowledge about stuff that came before I did. Just finished Gordon S. Wood’s “The American Revolution.” A useful primer from the rare historian who writes from authority and with lucidity. The only problem: the reading list must grow longer still.

Words I never expected to write: “Chief Bender’s Burden” is featured in today’s Washington Post.

As mentioned a time or two around this site, I’ll start peddling books in person this weekend with two events you might want to check out if you don’t have a better option.
Signing: Minnesota Twins Game
About 25,000 of my closest friends and I will be at the Metrodome before and during the Minnesota Twins-Kansas City [...]

Interviewer: Why should people trust you enough to buy a copy of Chief Bender’s Burden?
TS: Because I have 35 years of proven experience.
Interviewer: This is your first book. What exactly does that mean?
TS: The point is that this book is not just words.
Interviewer: You said the experience of completing the manuscript was harrowing. In a [...]

I was huffing at the gym when I looked over at the TV screen next to me. There was a TV screen next to me because, of course, one can’t be expected to stop watching TV long enough to, you know, exercise.
I couldn’t hear the show but apparently it was an MTV spring-break special from [...]

I feel like I am 76 years even thinking about this topic, but the world has forced this post out of me. Did someone turn up the dial … everywhere?
Went to the library last night. Was in the “reading area” (used to be that everyone in every corner of the library understood the entire place [...]

I’m toe-to-toe with Russ Feingold. “She’s been a senator for seven years — that gives her all this supposed experience to be president? He has a spent a lot more time in elected office.”
“The Illinois state senate doesn’t count,” Feingold said.
“So what you’re saying is that if there was a presidential election five years from [...]

He laughs. This surprises me because I didn’t know he was awake. His chin is often close to his neck; so tight in fact that I don’t know how he can see what’s in front of him. A thick blue cap covers his crown and a good bit of his dark face.
He comes to this [...]

The bell rang a second time and I set down my music muffs to see what this was all about. No one rings here, out here where there are more pecan trees than people.
It’s a young man peddling papers.
There’s a program, he said. I’ll be able to go to college.
I’m not good with decisions, especially [...]

As I slid my fork through a slice of pumpkin pie I looked at the bottle of whipped cream — or whatever it really is; some chemical combo that tastes like whipped cream — before me. In addition to the ingredients (I put something called “carrageenan” in my body, which sounds healthful) and the [...]