Category Archives: Writing

Sitting at a stoplight, you can create some pretty fanciful stories. I know this because, on occasion, I sit at stop lights and, from time to time, I fabricate stories about the people sitting in the cars beside me or behind … Continue reading →

Well, that wi-fi emergency did not last long, just long enough to frustrate me and cause me to post a brief excuse for being unable to write about my story idea, the one about the guy who goes to bed … Continue reading →

One day, in the distant future, a young woman named Phaedra will accelerate. She will move faster than any of her friends and family, far faster than her father, who will have been a professor of agrarian culture, even more rapidly than … Continue reading →

It’s a bit early for the neighbors to be at the barbie, Graeme thought, as he opened the back door to the wooden deck off the living room. The scent of wood smoke and seared meat filled his nostrils. Once outside, he realized almost … Continue reading →

The idea of risk had been on her mind quite a lot lately.  How much safety, security, certainty would she be willing to risk for happiness?  How much exposure to danger and ugliness and turmoil would she be willing to tolerate if she had … Continue reading →

So, for no reason other than being lazy about writing this morning, I decided instead to create a list of some of the fiction or near-fiction or weird vignettes or simple scenes I’ve written in the past couple of years. … Continue reading →

Someone, maybe your father or your uncle, told you men don’t cry. You kept hearing it. And you heard “big boys don’t cry.” The messages were clear: if you cry, you’re not a big boy.  If you cry, you’re not a man. So, … Continue reading →

He is about five feet, seven inches tall, with a roundish face, jowls betraying a strong affinity for food, and sandy grey hair, cut long enough that it can be combed a bit, but not long enough to enable him … Continue reading →

I once wrote that I had an interest in writing schlock to submit to schlock publishers whose customers enjoy immersing themselves in in schlock novels.  I wonder if my “cauldron” post fits the bill and puts me on the right … Continue reading →

What are you supposed to do, when you find yourself immersed in desire forbidden by good sense and commitment and decency? Where do you go for guidance when you know what the guidance will be and you discard its idiocy in … Continue reading →

One of my favorite authors started writing fiction for publication well after age fifty, I believe.  Her experience, and listening to and reading exhortations to aspiring writers, may have prompted her to say this, with which I heartily agree: Spend some … Continue reading →

I am trying to imagine myself as an emergency room physician, a man who successfully deals with urgent and critical care issues calmly but with an extreme sense of urgency. At the same time, this man who has such remarkable … Continue reading →

Well, with this one, it’s 1002.  But just a moment ago, as I was looking at this blog’s administration pages, I saw that I had just published the 1000th and 1001st posts.  I’m posting this, the 1002nd post, in recognition of … Continue reading →