Hello and Happy Friday,

I told you at our last visit I was reading the novel No Country for Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/s, it’s a terrific tale and I mean tale in the sense of the spell binding, long lost lore telling fashion that has kept generations of writers w—I believe Mr. Cormac is a master of story telling because he is only spare on the not-necessaries: over punctuation, he doesn’t use quotations around characters words, he just lets them speak; character description, Mr. Cormac lets the characters paint the pictures of themselves in your mind by what they say and how they say it, so each one stands out and you know which one you’re reading about immediately. And his description of the world, the land, these folks are from and live in, you not only read about it but its as if you feel it, smell it; the cold river Llewelyn jumps into to save his life, the water stinging his bullet wounds or feel yourself reaching for the mountains the sheriff looks toward that seem a million miles away as they stand in silent judgment of you and all before—finding us wanting in every way--as he ponders what kind of human monsters he’s up against.

Mr. Cormac takes liberty with structure, he has earned the right to do so, he’s brave to do and it works beautifully and he does it for story alone which is a gift. He is a storyteller in its most meaningful term and its few like him still around to our detriment. There is such much to think about, love and rejoice in when reading a novel like No Country for Old Men and it helps me with my writing in the sense, I want to reach my special place in writing where story is king, a handsome, kind, sad and riveting king, but king nevertheless; Mr. Cormac has reached his special place.

Talk to you soon.

If you have any comments or suggestions I have a new e-mail address at: mathewsla@hotmail.com

Until next time, God willing.