Hi, my name is Andrew Markle, thanks for finding your way here.

This blog started because I wanted a forum to write some non-fiction outside of the queries and magazine pitches that so often seem to drain my energy and enthusiasm before I’ve written a word. It took me about a month to overcome the blog technicalities but it seems like that’s finally over and the website creases have been mostly ironed out. At least enough to start writing. The domain for my name was stolen, by some rogue doppelganger, so I went for a title that would allow me the same sort of freedom, which is basically: to write about what I want to write about.

The title, Death and Housekeeping, is problematic as it implies everything, and nothing. It’s a broad moniker that risks sliding off the groomed path of the ski slope, into the Out of Bounds, where markers disappear, and it’s impossible to tell which direction is home. But maybe it’ll work, as I don’t see this blog being about just one thing. It’s not about books, although I’ll review them here, it’s not about writing, although I’ll probably talk about that too, and it’s not about death, at all.

I’m one of those annoying people that is good at everything, but realize that this essentially makes me great at nothing. I can wield a mitre saw just as comfortably as I can wield a pen, or a computer, or a sandwich. But the limitation, and the thing that I ask myself is, am I the best man to work a mitre saw? And the answer is: no—probably not. I’m sure there are others born to do just that. They could make cuts so fine and precise that every time they powered up their saw it would sound like destiny, but I’m not that guy.

I like books. I enjoy the quiet solitude of a story told well and I think that if I had to put a label to it, this blog would be about the lifestyle of a reader and writer. But I also like the self-discovery that comes from travel, and smart lifestyle choices, and movies, and music, and home renovations, and maybe I better just stop there.

So I guess what I’m saying is, this is my blog. It’s not about one thing, but everything, because what else is there but death and housekeeping?