Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

fiction

  • Random Thoughts on Writing

    March is a transformative month, though I doubt anyone can say with certainty what the month is transforming into. In the course of a few days, Winter and Spring have seemed to be like unsynchronized and unintentional ballroom dancers stepping… Continue reading

  • When Love Seeks Understanding and Forgiveness

    Who By Fire A novel by Mary L. Tabor Novels, particularly well written ones, create an atmosphere that readers can breathe as they walk through a landscape in which they encounter strangers. We question who the characters are as we… Continue reading

  • Portrait of an Author as a Victorian:  A Conversation with Anthony Trollope

    What does Trollope have to say to authors of the 21st century? One evening, years ago, I was with Bailey White, the author and NPR All Things Considered commentator. Among the topics discussed was what to read when writing a… Continue reading

  • Grocery Shopping with Mister Lincoln’s Elephant Boys

    Grocery shopping in our home is usually done on Thursday or Friday. The upcoming week’s menu and the supermarket list are written concurrently. This saves time and money in the market. The problem with this is that we each prefer… Continue reading

  • Friends & Taking a Vacation with a Postscript

    Friends & Taking A Vacation I am often surprised when asked if Carl ten Hoopen is a real person. Be assured that he is. Any doubts that you have may be due to the photograph he asked me to use… Continue reading

  • The  Treacherous Connoisseur: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

    One morning⸺ it was on the fifteenth of May⸺ I was returning from visiting a colleague in Oxford when I entered that well-known door on Baker Street.  Violin music, played with fierce energy, wafted from those rooms Sherlock Holmes inhabited.… Continue reading

  • THE RULE DIALOGUES

    THE RULE DIALOGUES She was a stranger I encountered in the Miners Bay Book shop on Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada. Over the next three months, she was my Saturday morning breakfast companion at the Sunny Mayne Bakery Café. Each… Continue reading

  • THE FOX AND CHANGE: A FABLE

    “Things are going to change around here since they moved in,” Andy Jost said. “You saw him?” Fred Haisch asked. Andy nodded. Fred and Andy are my neighbors. Years ago when I first moved to Evoraburg, they and Andy’s three… Continue reading