page contents Google

WRITING PARTNERS? CHOOSE CAREFULLY

Two nights ago I watch Hamnet from the blue velvet couch with July 4th coming around the bend.
It’s about Shakespeare, which isn’t a spoiler.
One of the more helpful movie openings, it explained early that Hamnet and Hamet are the same name. The same.
So I was set. Hamnet it is.

 

Hamlet is widely considered one of the greatest plays in Western literature due to its unprecedented psychological depth, exploring human consciousness through soliloquies like “To be or not to be”.
It transformed the revenge tragedy genre by focusing on internal conflict—hesitation, existentialism, and madness—rather than just action, creating a modern, relatable protagonist. 

 

That was Hamlet, this is Hamnet:

 

The True Story Behind Hamnet: Hamnet is historical fiction rooted in a few scarce biographical facts about William Shakespeare.
While history confirms that Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, died at age 11 in 1596, there is no surviving evidence of how his parents felt or what caused his death.
The acclaimed novel by Maggie O’Farrell and the subsequent 2025 film directed by Chloé Zhao fill in these historical gaps, creatively reimagining the family’s grief and proposing that the boy’s death later inspired the play Hamlet

 

Is Chloe Zhao the new Shakespeare?
My writing partner Bill and I figured it out.
These are Amazon Hamnet reviews for Maggie O’Farrell:

 

“O’Farrell moves through the family’s pain like a master of signs and signals. . . . In Hamnet, art imitates life not to co-opt reality, but to help us bear it.”
—Los Angeles Times

 

“Magnificent and searing. . . . A family saga so bursting with life, touched by magic, and anchored in affection. . . . Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life, about whether he even wrote his own plays, here is a novel that matches him with a woman overwhelmingly more than worthy.”
—The Boston Globe

 

“Heartstopping. Hamnet does for the Shakespeare story what Jean Rhys did for Jane Eyre, inhabiting it, enlarging it and enriching it in ways that will alter the readers view for ever”
–Patrick Gale, author of A Place Called Winter

 

Creatively Reimagining Writing Partners

Taking work from 425 years ago and showing it anew? Yes.
The backdrop for Hamnet is the miserable living conditions.
Chloe Zhao showed the dirt and stink of the times with a cameo from Black Death.
Fall back another 800 years to this script, the Magna Carta, and how it shined a light forward.
My writing partner says the influencing impact of the story reverberates more than ever.
Google AI says:

 

The Magna Carta (1215) established the foundational principle that the sovereign is subject to the law, limiting arbitrary power and protecting individual rights.
Its core concepts directly shaped the English Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution (particularly due process), the Bill of Rights, and international human rights documents. 

 

We want a Maggie O’Farrell and Chloe Zhao working on the evolution of foundational principles we all live by.
The hero, like Shakespeare in Hamnet, would be the struggle to bring justice to their work.
The work? Due Process.
Co-starring the Constitution, with a cameo by the Bill of Rights.
I think the ladies could spin a powerful story with a sense of place with the dirt, the stink, and the feel.

 

PS:

This felt bad in Franco’s Spain.

 

PSS:

It feels bad anywhere, according to historical evidence and my writing partner

 

BEST BUY TACTICAL COMMANDO

I made a birthday run to Best Buy for my wife’s birthday.
Married people do this all the time. Maybe just husbands?
The difference was, my trip was on the birthday, which some people call irresponsible, tactless, whatever.
But I knew what I wanted and where to get it. And I knew the timeline.
How was I so well informed? My wife told me.
What I didn’t expect to see in Beaverton Best Buy was a greeter in a full tactical commando rig.
[Read More…]

MY TOP JULY FOURTH: 1976

In 1976 July Fourth found me living in Philadelphia, of all places.
I was standing in the audience listening to President Ford address the nation from the Liberty Bell.
I was a regular Army private two months from being discharged after two years.
My uncle, a career Marine, was with me.
It felt different than July 4, 2026.
[Read More…]

PIECES OF A LIFE TOGETHER, AND ‘THE PAST’

If you spend enough time with someone you may eventually get the feeling of living a life, of sharing a life, together.
With that in mind, why wait until the last minute to get, or give, the flowers.
Is there a plan for how to do that?
How do two people put those pieces together?
I’m glad to tell you:
[Read More…]

THE CUVEE PROM PLAN: TUXEDO REQURIED

The Cuvee prom plan works when the star align:
A birthday? An anniversary? A retirement?
Combine all three and it’s time to break out the tuxedo?
Yes, it’s time.

[Read More…]

More Posts from this Category

toughen up

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT OSCAR GOES TO?

Who deserves the Oscar for the Affordable Care Act? Health insurance used to be simple when I was young. At least it seemed simple. Mom and Dad took me to the doctor when things looked funky, like my collarbone. Things break on kids, like bones when they fly through the air and land awkwardly. Have […]

PORTLAND MOLE REMOVAL

  You’ve heard about the importance of the right words at the right time?   The following is a patient review that every professional dreams of.   One day we should all be so lucky.  

GUN TALK THE WRONG WAY … AGAIN

Raw Story posted a gun column about white men and guns. It was the sort of gun talk white men with guns shouldn’t identify with. “White men stockpile guns because they’re scared of black people and feel inadequate, science says.” That’s the rawstory title. It’s raw, but even more, it’s lazy, but a site called […]

More Posts from this Category

boomer years

Bob Dylan Time Shift From Second Gear To Overdrive

    Like so many today, I also feel change in the wind, and like any baby boomer worthy of the tag, I consult the only text reliable enough to lay it all out in understandable language.   No, not the Bible, or any religious narratives.   I turn to Bob Dylan, and so should […]

SECOND OPINIONS SAVED THE D-DAY

When the truth feels a little sketchy? Get a second opinion. A real estate agent listed my English mother in law’s house in Culver City, CA. They talked about the market, then the price. The real estate lady gave her best number. My mother in law disagreed, too low, and gave her number. It sold […]

WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKED LIKE TO NEW PARENTS

  New families are the future of life on earth? Agree? Who doesn’t hope such a broad statement is true with kids in the house? Instead of feeling trapped by the needs of someone other than yourself, feel the power. Do it right and they grow up to make the sort of decisions that promote […]

More Posts from this Category

buckle up

Travel Bans From History, Who Should Be Banned

    Travel bans tend to be specific in terms of where to go and where not to go.   Travel bans say one thing: Don’t go there, girlfriend. Stay away, pal.   Like a dress code in the NY disco dancing prime time of the late ’70’s, while punk rock was getting ready to […]

SHUT UP AND EAT: SOUTH PHILLY VIA SE PORTLAND

Geno’s or Pat’s? Or Shut Up And Eat? This cheesesteak. Or that cheesesteak. My readers know the value of cheesesteak. If I hear about a place from a reliable source, I’m there. Same for an unreliable source.

10 THINGS THE SEDONA VORTEX WON’T DO

But You Would. 1. Help confused drivers find their way through one roundabout after another. The place has more of them than a YES album, more than an English county. The problem starts when drivers think yield means stop. Learn how to navigate this simple alternative to traffic lights.

More Posts from this Category