Writing – Dodger Thoughts

Catch ‘The Catch,’ the new novel by Jon Weisman!

On November 1, 2023

In Books, Entertainment, Life, The Catch, Writing

Today is the official publication launch for my novel The Catch, available in paperback and digital download!

What’s it about? Glad you asked …

What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.

You can order the book right now.

Click here to order The Catch in paperback.

Click here to order The Catch on Kindle.

Should you read it? Let’s see what these wonderful people have to say …

You can support me by doing any or all of the following:

Read the book!
Spread the word!
Write an online review!

More to come … thank you for your support!

Interview: Ken Gurnick
on Ron Cey and writing
about the Dodgers

By Jon Weisman

On June 25, 2023

In Books, Dodgers, History, Writing

Photo of Ken Gurnick by Jon SooHoo

During my time working for the Dodgers, covering the team from the inside out, I marveled at the ease with which Ken Gurnick navigated the clubhouse.

Even though the same employer signed the players’ paychecks and my own, I often felt like an intruder. In contrast, Gurnick was part of the fabric. I recall how the longtime Dodger beat writer chatted as easily with a short-lived Dodger like Mike Bolsinger as with franchise icon Clayton Kershaw.

Novel progress, 2021

By Jon Weisman

On July 12, 2021

In Books, Life, Writing

So, the novel that I first described here in 2018 and updated here and here and here in 2019 and here at the end of 2020 … is done. Or, at least, it’s as done as these things get before someone agrees to publish them.

And that’s where things are right now. I have an agent who has begun to pitch the novel to editors, and I’m in the rather nauseating stage of waiting for one or more to bite. I even wonder whether it’s bad luck, bad karma or bad form to talk about it at this stage, but here I go.

Novel progress, 2020

By Jon Weisman

On January 1, 2021

In Books, Life, Thinking out loud, Writing

Nope, I haven’t stopped.

Sheltered, Part 4:
Don’t forget the joy

By Jon Weisman

On April 4, 2020

In Books, Coronavirus, Life, Sheltered, Thinking out loud, Writing

Some of my current angst is rooted in the novel I began working on almost 20 months ago.

Novel progress, 2019

By Jon Weisman

On December 28, 2019

In Books, Life, Thinking out loud, Writing

I’m not here right now — this just seems like a nice, writerly pic.

Over the past year, I have published as little as I have since nearly the start of the 21st century. But it has been one of my most fulfilling years as a writer.

Halfway to the beginning

By Jon Weisman

On August 5, 2019

In Books, Life, Thinking out loud, Writing

It was August 11, 2018, according to my journal, that I made the decision to put aside the non-fiction book I started working on and dive into trying to write my first novel.

On Sunday — 51 weeks later — I reached the halfway point of the rough draft.

Just to put that in perspective, my first book on the Dodgers, from conception to completion, took about six months. My second Dodger book, took about nine, mostly accomodating the interviews I wanted to do.

Those books came with deadlines, and deadlines haunt you like shadows. You can hide, but you can’t outrun them. So there was no choice but to stay up late, wake up early and give over massive amounts of free time to getting those books done.

But still – a year in, I’m only halfway through a draft that will need heavy rewrites. Why am I doing this to myself?

The scourge of the backward apostrophe

By Jon Weisman

On June 3, 2019

In Life, Writing

The nearly ubiquitous word processing program, Microsoft Word, has perhaps been a net positive for society. But it has its failings, including one so deleterious that it is rotting away the core of punctuation — and in turn, society — as we know it.

Bookin’

By Jon Weisman

On February 28, 2019

In Books, Life, Thinking out loud, Writing

Warning: Personal, non-Dodger content ahead.

A writer’s happy journey sideways in 2018

By Jon Weisman

On December 31, 2018

In Books, Dodgers, Life, Thinking out loud, Writing

My favorite piece that I wrote this year was “Baseball has its day in the son,” the story of how my 10-year-old developed a new interest in following baseball in unlikely circumstances.

“A modest thing, but thine own,” as Vin Scully liked to say. I felt I adapted a uniquely personal moment into a story that could be meaningful to total strangers, while keeping the true feeling intact.

Aside from the happy memories of the moment itself, it was a story that energized me, making me believe that a non-fiction, non-baseball book I had been sketching, one that I alluded to 10 months ago, could actually work, not in the sense of being any kind of bestseller, but simply in the hopes of being something to someone.

As much as the Dodgers are part of my soul, they have never been the only part. Amid all the pleasure I enjoyed from the publication of Brothers in Arms: Koufax, Kershaw and the Dodgers’ Extraordinary Pitching Tradition, I have been wanting to stretch myself as a writer. The piece about my son, along with several others like it in my history at Dodger Thoughts that revolved around life more than baseball, convinced me that I wasn’t crazy to write a sustained narrative devoted to what was right in front of me.

Less than a month later, those plans were on the shelf.

Why I stand proudly against the serial comma

By Jon Weisman

On February 17, 2018

In Life, Writing

Every so often — frankly, all too often — I find myself drawn into a doozy of a debate on Twitter about the serial comma. Yes, really.

Also known as the Oxford comma, it’s specifically the comma that follows the penultimate item in a series: for example the second comma in “songs, tunes, and ditties.”

Usually, the serial comma is completely unnecessary, and consequently it’s almost completely absent from newspapers and nearly as much from magazines, outside of Old School holdouts like The New Yorker. (Not so much in books, I should note.)

Nevertheless, several people I respect, like and esteem are fervent advocates on Twitter, Facebook and the like for the serial comma, putting me in the odd, strange and divisive position of having to explain why I don’t want extraneous, supercilious and clunky punctuation in my writing.

Rather than re-explaining my position again and again on Twitter, I decided to put it here once and for all, so that I can simply point to this post and move on.

Brilliance

By Jon Weisman

On December 6, 2011

In Writing

While I’ve been screwing around pretending I’m a writer, our old friend Alex Belth has gone and produced a masterpiece.

Dodger Thoughts

Jon Weisman's outlet for dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball and life

Category: Writing

Catch ‘The Catch,’ the new novel by Jon Weisman!

Interview: Ken Gurnick
on Ron Cey and writing
about the Dodgers

Novel progress, 2021

Novel progress, 2020

Sheltered, Part 4:
Don’t forget the joy

Novel progress, 2019

Halfway to the beginning

The scourge of the backward apostrophe

Bookin’

A writer’s happy journey sideways in 2018

Why I stand proudly against the serial comma

Brilliance

Buy ‘The Catch: A novel’

Buy ‘Brothers in Arms’

‘Brothers in Arms’ coverage

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