January 16, 2023 If the last three years have taught me anything, it should have been to count my blessings and take nothing for granted. You’ll notice I began this confessional by saying should have. Should have.Shoulda, and definitely coulda. Yet… Tuesday I stepped into the shower, my aging skin and bones eager…

December 26, 2022 On Christmas Eve, my wife and I went to bed with a chilled but functioning pool in the backyard. On Christmas Day, we woke up to a skating rink. The big freeze is one of the many troubles wrought by the hellish blizzard and cold front with the deceptively innocent…

December 14, 2022 Like any self-respecting writer, I obsess about being read, wondering if anyone out there cares or even notices what I say. So naturally I was delighted when the New York Times, no less, picked up a story I broke right here on this blog a few years back, “ Why…

December 10, 2022 It seems it’s been this way forever, foggy mornings and soggy days in various hues of grey, with only fleeting patches of blue. Since we’re still on the darkening side of the winter solstice, the cloud cover accelerates the early dimming of light. The mercury is unseasonably high even for…

November 23, 2022 My latest short story, “ Now You Never Call Me anymore,” has just been published by Adelaide Literary Magazine. …

November 7, 2022 I woke up early, my sleep unhinged by daylight saving time, and found that for the third time in barely two months, I had lost a friend. …

October 13, 2022 Being ghosted is so sad. Especially by collaborators who’ve been at my elbow since the days of AOL and dial-up. I still need these allies like Seattle needs lattes and the Chicago Bears need a quarterback (again). …

October 5, 2022 Almost twenty-five years ago, the woman I was seeing (and was crazy about) suggested we take a trip. Our destination was a place in Florida she knew well, since she grew up in Alabama and had been to the Sunshine State many times. We flew down from Washington DC, where…

September 20, 2022 My name is Dave and I’m a recovering pantser. This has nothing to do with my fashion sense, which doesn’t exist. It definitely isn’t about sex either. But please keep reading anyway. A “pantser” is one of the two main species of fiction writers, the people who write by the…