About

About this blog – I established this blog to provide a forum for the free exchange of information and ideas on fiction favorites. The primary goal of this blog is to entertain the reader with short items daily. The week has the following structure:

Sunday is a View of the Neighborhood, during which I present some photos of my community that may be interesting.

Monday is the Top Ten Things Not to Do, a list of things we should never do under the circumstances described.

Tuesday is for Anything Possible and is usually reserved for a story prompt where I point at a page in a book and the word closest to my finger is the prompt.

Wednesday is my day off

Thursday is A Little Personal. I discuss an item that is personal to me and for the last seven years it has been featuring my Dogs

Friday is a celebration of good news, and there is a haiku.

Saturday is a prompt from Linda Hill, titled, Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

I want to clarify that Fiction Favorites is a blog dedicated to humor. The stories are told in dialog without tags so the reader can become part of the action. Not everyone can read and appreciate these kinds of stories, but hopefully, you can.

About the header picture – It changes from time to time. It is currently a photo of Lake Travis taken from the end of my street.

About your comments—You can see them by clicking on the comment section of a particular subject. Please feel free to leave a comment. If you don’t want others to see it, please mark it private; otherwise, I will assume it is okay to post. I have also added a comments section on the front page to make the last five comments visible. If you don’t see yours, please go to the individual post, and it should be there.

About John W Howell – I have been working in business for over forty years and now have the time to work in particular areas of interest. My passion has always been to create compelling fiction stories. I have authored eight novels. I also write short stories and have had some published. My short story Cold Night Out won an honorable mention in the Writers Digest Popular Fiction Contest. I dabble in poetry and have published a few. I am trying new forms and will sneak out of the dressing room and into the water once I think one is worth reading. I am primarily a Haiku fan, and my weekly Haiku was named a JohnKu due to its lack of seasonal convention.

e-mail johnhowell.wave@gmail.com

I will continue to write; hopefully, this blog will provide entertainment and interesting thoughts.

I live in Lakeway, Texas, with my wife and our spoiled rescue pets.

 

218 thoughts on “About”

  2. Well, I tried hard finding a way commenting your Bram Stoker article, no way. Am I blind?
    Thanks for following my blog. I like reading your blog in the mornings after breakfast, it`s my morning treat.
    Greetings from the sunny North-Norfolk coast
    Klausbernd 🙂

    Klausbernd

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    1. Klausbernd,
      I am sorry you had some trouble with a comment. The comment section on each post should work (at the bottom). I’ll look into it since I did get comments on Bram Stoker. It could be that WordPress has something against North-Norfolk Coasters :-). I see that you have a daytime temperature of about 15 degrees C. In South Texas we have a daytime temperature of 26.6 degrees C. Thanks for writing.
      John

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  3. Hi, John,

    today it works fine because the temperature is 2 C only 😉 I like cold weather what we usually don`t have at the North-Norfolk coast.

    Thanks for your answer.
    Take care
    Klausbernd 🙂

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  4. John– thanks for liking my post on Thomas Pynchon – it meant a lot to me. Seeing that you live in the Gulf was a pull-through to the stream of consciousness blog on V.
    I wrote the entire piece in one and posted it. The idea behind it is simple – there are some books that cannot be critiqued, you can only react to the work. V is as I described exactly – messy, sensual, violent, dirty and extraordinary. The only unreadable book you will ever need to read.
    Benny Profane needs to know.

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  11. John, thanks for the follow. I was immediately drawn to your post on Austin Boxer Rescue. A woman who worked for them found our beloved boxer, Scout, while we were at work. He had gotten out and ventured onto the highway near our property. He was struck in the head by a passing vehicle. It killed him instantly. I just blogged about him earlier this week since the 22nd was the anniversary of his death. 9 years later and it’s still so painful. I will be forever thankful to the woman from ABR because we may not have ever known what had happened to him and been able to bury him. Must stop now, too many tears to see the screen.

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    1. Oh Melissa,
      I totally understand. I am so sorry for your loss and believe me time has no relevance to grief. I see so many boxers that have not had the love that you obviously gave yours. I hope you can find peace in the fact that Scott had a good home and was doing what all Boxers do. They want to see the entire world and won’t let a fence or door stand in the way. It is so tough sometimes.

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      1. He definitely had a zest for life. He found enjoyment in the little things. Makes me smile just thinking about all the silly things he did. We can learn a lot about how to live from our pets 🙂

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  18. Have you ever had the occasion to read any of Diana Galbaldon books? The Outlander series is the best writing I have ever come across. She is so descriptive that you actually feel like you are standing in the picture. My mother 90 is right behind me in this series and she too is mesmerized with her storytelling abilities. I have lots of favourite authors but currently this is # 1 on my list. I have read now all 10 of her books and waiting for the next one.

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  19. Compelling has to be one of my most favorite words to describe what I want to do, or how I want to participate (in life, groups, what-have-you). I look forward to reading more of your posts, and thank you for stopping by the D/A Dialogues, too! I feel very welcome to the RCC!

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  21. Hello John, many thanks for dropping by ‘The Savvy Senorita’ and following my blog. I appreciate it! Bex
    P.S: I too work on fiction short stories, and also have a novel I have been working on since I left University! No publisher, though to be fair I haven’t tried to secure one – tough road isn’t it?!

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  26. John,
    Did you get to see my photo yet?
    I was trying an experiment to import photos from another site I have, but although I could see it, you couldn’t, so I’ve uploaded it onto my blog and everyone is seeing it OK now 🙂

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  28. Hi John,
    thanks for stopping by my blog. I really liked what Mae said about comments and being an asshole, don´t you?
    Guess I´ll browse through your posts now…

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    1. I did very much. I see so many bloggers go off the path that it is good to remind folks about being kind. Thanks for the comment. Please stay as long as you wish. Care for some tea?

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  29. Thanks for the visit to my blog! I enjoyed reading your bio.

    I love the water, being originally from Newfoundland. My husband loves rainstorms.

    For the past several years, my husband and I have been visiting dogs and cats in a No-Kill shelter to help socialize them. Several have gone on to be adopted! This year, we also embarked on our first fostering of a dog.

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  30. Helloo sir 🙂 You are certainly one of those that has made my blog what it is. Please accept this little gift of…..SEVEN AWARDS !!! God bless you. Check it out @ justmikemon.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/yet-another-bouquet-of-awards-seven-awards/….Congratulations to you sir and have a splendid day 🙂

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  35. Hi John. Thanks for the follow. Looking forward to reading your blog …

    Enjoyed your “About Me”, especially:

    “The first novel is still in manuscript form and being utilized as a door stop in the laundry room.”

    Yeah, that’s right, that’s where my first novel belongs. I have a couple of copies. Maybe I should go stick one in front of the laundry room door 🙂

    “I also write poetry but have not had the guts to share any with anyone. The one time I read a piece to a person their only comment was, “it doesn’t rhyme.””

    Ha ha ha ha … I have a piece of poetry that I want to post, but it I’m afraid it might meet with the same response. Oh well. I think I’ll post it anyway 🙂

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  41. Hi John, I have really enjoyed reading through your posts. It is great to get so many great writing tips as I am only just starting out and I need all the help that I can get 🙂

    Best wishes
    Charlotte

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  45. Just read your gravatar …. be brave put some poetry on here , no will laugh…. if they do I will bash them, or failing that I shall send in my friend Vlad to sort them , he is an immortal Vampire bear !…….. you don’t get many of them to the pound!

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    1. Thank you so much for offering Vlad. I actually have started letting folks see some poetry. I am doing Haiku primarily. In fact there is one coming up on Friday. Thanks again for the offer. You never know….

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  48. Figured I’d stop by to say hi after seeing Cayman write such nice things about you. I can see why he’s so fond of you.
    Wishing you all good things,
    Christy

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  49. Hi John,
    Just wanted to swing by and say a huge thank you for your support of The Paperbook Collective in 2013. It has been an honour to publish your incredible pieces, and to see what you come up with each month. It is always bound to be fantastic.
    It has been great getting to know you as a writer. I look forward to seeing more of your work in 2014!
    Happy holidays,
    Jayde.

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