This is Jason Noble. He's eating a pre-Thanksgiving meal that I prepared.

My school went on a field trip to the University of San Diego for a performance of the National Association of Black Storytellers. The performance was titled "Walkin' Talkin' and Shoutin' All The Way to the Ocean." Pictured are some of the students.

Cheap Trick 1979
Originally uploaded by Photocat62.

Here's a Cheap Trick album review page.

William Styron is dead at the age of 81.

My first Styron book, The Confessions of Nat Turner, made me the Styron fan I am today. A big one.

His writing style flowed like a steady creek, and that's the main reason for my admiration. He seem to have me in-mind when he wrote. Styron chose the perfect word for just the proper moment to make amazing fiction, which makes reading his books pleasurable (regardless of the subject matter).

In his book Darkness Visible he made suicidal-depression more understandable to me than anything I've heard, read or seen. Great writers do just that--make the un-understandable a little more understandable.

Styron's typical work day was to

sleep until noon; read and think in bed for another hour or so; lunch with Rose around 1:30; run errands, deal with the mail, listen to music, daydream and generally ease into work until 4. Then up to the workroom to write for four hours, perfecting each paragraph until 200 or 300 words are completed; have cocktails and dinner with the family and friends at 8 or 9; and stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, drinking and reading and smoking and listening to music.

The books I liked the best are: Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice, Darkness Visible and Lie Down in Darkness.

William Styron leaves behind a wife, three children, and eight grandchildren.