Category Archives: Uncategorized

Like jellyfish, 2020 is galumphing to a close and none too soon for any of us. Some years are sunny and beautiful, like 1967, the year of the Summer of Love. Some years are dark and crazed, like 1968, the year of assassinations and Nixon. Some years are 2020, when no one enjoyed any luck.Continue reading “The Rogue Year”

This is the Dead Week. I don’t mean the Annual Zombie Fest (something I wrote in jest but, turns out, there actually is one in Long Beach every year). This is the week nothing gets done. Nothing. No contracts are signed, no new business gets transacted, no jury trials commence. Nothing. I am a lawyerContinue reading “The Dead Week”

Okay. Christmas. Merry. Jolly. Fa la la la la la la la la la…… It’s Christmas week in San Bernardino, which means that I am in court a lot. For a family law lawyer, Christmas means lots of angst with the clients. That, and an ex-girlfriend who drove to San Diego in a rental car,Continue reading “Dazed and Merry”

My friend and somewhat mentor Jane Cleland (well, she chose my story for the Black Orchid Novella Award in 2018 and I attend her webinars on writing, so I’m calling her a mentor) recently gave a little web talk on writer’s block. She had a number of suggestions for getting out of writer’s block, whichContinue reading “Screw Writer’s Block”

Well, it happened again. In my email this afternoon was the following response to a short story submission: “Hi Mark, well you made it right down to the wire. We enjoyed Love Potion #10 for UNMASKED. It was clever and amusing, and several members of our editorial team (eight grad students and me) picked itContinue reading “Mr. Not Quite”

So it’s the time of year when everyone, and I mean everyone, does a little blog on what they’re thankful for. I call bull. The human heart is never thankful. It always thinks that it deserves more. If you disagree I can only say you are lying to yourself. For instance: I see a pictureContinue reading “Not Thankful At All”

Christmas is a’comin’ and if that doesn’t terrify you, you’ve never raised a child. My beautiful son is now grown and living in Michigan while he pursues his Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering. Yes, my son is a rocket scientist. (Some years ago, when he was getting his Masters at Purdue, I went to a dinnerContinue reading “My Madness”

Every November I go crazy. There’s no other way to describe it. I start on Nov. 1 writing a novel. I write anywhere from 1500 to 2000 words a day until I finish the novel. When I’m done I have added to the storehouse of the Literature of Mark Bruce. National Novel Writing Month, orContinue reading “Nanowrimo, Anyone?”

So. One of these posts talks about my time in Sacramento, but I wanted to make sure you knew that I work now in San Bernardino. In fact, I have opened an office near my home. The office is in Victorville on Bear Valley road. It’s a pleasant office, roomy and full of the debrisContinue reading “Home Sweet Victorville”