Author Archives: Brian Bixby

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About Brian Bixby

I enjoy history because it helps me understand people. I'm writing fiction for much the same reason.

Chapter 4 of Summer of the Netherfield Witch

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Brian Bixby

We live in an era in which information is exploding. Sometimes literally. I wonder if the exploding heads in the movie Scanners were meant to be a deep commentary on that phenomenon. This notion seems much more reasonable at the tail … Continue reading →

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Chapter 3 of Summer of the Netherfield Witch

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Brian Bixby

Jane Harris no doubt misses her life in Boston, but willy-nilly, she finds herself taking up the reins of a life in Netherfield. Time to meet new people, make new plans, maybe even make progress on that new diary, Jane … Continue reading →

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Chapter 2 of Summer of the Netherfield Witch

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Brian Bixby

So you’ve met Jane Harris. Come meet her family. They are an ideal family. Mind you, I’m not saying whose ideal. Certainly not Jane’s. Jane probably imagines her ideal family as something closer to the painting below. Still, she must … Continue reading →

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Snow days, no days, in a daze

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Brian Bixby

The news reports tell me Boston has just set a record for snowfall in 30 days, a bit over 61 inches. This is more than we received in the month of the Blizzard of ’78, which all but shut the … Continue reading →

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Beginning a new serial: Summer of the Netherfield Witch

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Brian Bixby

Now that I’ve had a month to rest, it’s time to start up a new story. It’s a comedy. How can it not be a comedy? It’s set in a minor vacation resort, where people are happy at their leisure. … Continue reading →

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Review: Rachel Urquhart, The Visionist

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Brian Bixby

Writing a novel about the Shakers forces a serious novelist to have to make several choices, some of which will shape the story, others of which can detrimentally affect the story. To her credit, most of Rachel Urquhart’s choices in The … Continue reading →

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Looking ahead and behind, though not both at once

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Brian Bixby

I’m snowed in today, and the class I’m teaching on “Pirates!” is cancelled for tonight, so it’s a good time to reflect. Where had this blog been? Where is it going? If you’re short on time, the most important news … Continue reading →

Posted in Dragon Lady, Martha's Children, Nightfeather, Prophecies and Penalties, Writing fiction | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

On the third (or fourth) day of Christmas

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Brian Bixby

It was the third or fourth day of Christmas. Santa wasn’t sure which. He’d been mixing a lot of brandy with his eggnog; got to do something to appear fat and jolly, you know. And he got to thinking about … Continue reading →

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The final chapter of Prophecies and Penalties

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Brian Bixby

It’s been a long road for Emily Fisher since she came to Quasopon to solve the murder of Stephen Nash, a member of the High Council of the Children of the New Revelation. She met the Prophesied One and became … Continue reading →

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This year’s Christmas ghost story: When the ghost came in from the cold

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Brian Bixby

You all know about Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Tiny Tim, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and all that. Whether he started it or not, Dickens supported the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas time for … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing fiction | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments