Author: James McMurtray

“The purpose of communication is control.  It has no other function. Most people want desperately to think it has some loftier purpose, but it does not. That’s why you can’t think of one. No one ever has. An organism communicates to control its environment — and for no other reason — ever. …It’s a good…

The things that resonate with people are never the things I expect. One of the threads from “Kicked” that has generated several comments from readers is this: …Their tastes in reading material did not overlap anywhere. Calvin read spy novels and historical fiction. Molly was one of the six people in the universe at the…

The people who have read my books frequently tell me that any one of them would make a good movie. I agree.  In fact, I “watched” The Ice and the Stars before I wrote it.  I have also walked the imagined terraces and orchards described in Pathogen, and I can see and hear the infamous…

Jack Bannister reviewed Pathogen.  I think he liked it. “Finished PATHOGEN. It was like reading Michael Crichton only better!!!    I really enjoyed this book!”  –  Jack Bannister

There is a reason that political science is not listed among the sciences in college catalogs. In fact the term has recently acquired a new meaning. It now means “science that has been skewed by the politics of the source.” This was common practice in the middle ages of course. Science was required to conform…

I have collaborated lately on several projects with my seven-year-old grandson.  I have noticed that he has a real knack for figuring out how to make things work. His solutions are imaginative, sometimes complex and elaborate, and they are almost never the first one that occurs to ME.   He does not recognize barriers.  He sees…

Mumbai, India has many experimental and innovative schools. The Mumbai Street School described in Kicked is fictional, but some of its features are inspired by current efforts in India and other parts of the world to address illiteracy and poverty.  Indian educators and business leaders have collaborated to address the same issues portrayed in the…

I don’t know if other authors do this or not but I have regular conversations with my fictional characters. These are IMAGINARY conversations you understand… Let me hasten to add that I still live at home and I am in no immediate danger of being institutionalized (as far as I know). I suspect that many…

It might be nice to be taken seriously at some point, but somebody else is going to have to do it…  I couldn’t keep a straight face.

A contemporary Greek Tragedy by Jim McMurtray. Most tragedies aren’t funny.  They’re…  you know, tragic.  That’s about to change.  A profoundly ugly ex-football player and a comet are set on a collision course. The fates have a sense of humor… and it’s a dark one.