Dear Mary: I’ve decided to finally respond to your emails not because I remember you, but because I don’t. When you first contacted me after my name and face appeared in the media following the plane crash, I had no recall of you. After you sent a second email with your photo attached posing in front of Agora in Grant Park—a photo you claimed I took—I still had no recollection of you. I assumed...
Although my lifelong writing love is the novel, I’m exploring other forms in my dotage. Like my love for Pecha Kucha, where you write and recite a story that takes exactly 6:40 seconds to tell, using 20 slides that each stay on the screen for 20 seconds. Three times I’ve performed that dog and pony show in front of live audiences, and had fun every time. I’ve also dabbled in shorter fiction, just...
He has one job. It’s not even a job—it’s a privilege and an honor: making love to his beautiful wife. On an August Saturday morning at first light, end of summer, a day off for both of them, the window raised and a quiet breeze from the lake fluttering the curtains. This is the day Frank looks forward to every week after long hours of work, after the neck pain and back knots from standing for...
Robert pressed the accelerator and merged onto the travel lane. The service area with illuminated signs and parking lot lights receded in his rearview mirror. He faced the black night. Barely visible in the distance ahead along the straight dark highway a single red taillight glowed. Behind him no headlights were visible. It was a lonely stretch of road in the middle of the night in the middle of...
Who doesn’t want a hot read for a hot summer? My fifth novel, THE SUITOR, is available starting today. Get your copy on Amazon—paper or eBook—and more copies for your friends and family. And if you’re feeling generous, write an Amazon review of the book. Thank you—and I hope your summer is off to a sizzling start. Get THE SUITOR here.
Dear Readers: My newest novel, THE SUITOR, will be published next week, June 20, and available on Amazon in eBook or print format. I know that’s only six days away, but you probably can’t wait, so here’s a link to the first chapter. What’s this story about, you ask? Here’s the logline: When a recent college graduate suddenly falls in love with an ambitious schemer...
April 20 (4/20) is weed day. The day got its name in the 1970s in California when a group of high school students met after school around 4:20 to get high and 4/20 became a code phrase they could use in front of their parents. Clever stoner types, these high school kids. The reputation of 4/20 spread from there. 420 Magazine, founded in 1993, has a mission around creating cannabis awareness. I...
Dear Readers: For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting my next book, you will soon be rewarded! THE SUITOR will be published in May just in time for you to have a great summer read. I’m pleased to share the cover with you today. Every good story answers a key question. THE SUITOR: What does a father do when he vehemently opposes the young man his daughter is determined to marry...
The doorbell rang. It was two chimes—ding-dong—which meant the front door. A single ding is the breezeway door. Twenty-seven years in my house and I can still mix that up. But I can write Pi out to ten decimal places, so I’m cool. A man stands on my front stoop, rocking on the balls of his feet, as if about to launch himself to chase a ball. He holds a book in his hand, half hidden behind his leg...
Yes, there’s another novel in the works. THE SUITOR is about a recent college grad who falls in love with a charming schemer, leading to her father attempting to prevent the marriage. Sticky situation, right? In this scene, Anna breaks the news of her engagement on a visit to her parents. It doesn’t go according to plan. “How is Kyle?” Deb asked. “I’m sorry he couldn’t make the trip...
The milkweed is coming up in our yard. We’ve never planted or cultivated it, but over the years it has appeared on its own and we appreciate every plant, even the ones that pop up in the middle of the lawn. Harriet taught me all about milkweed and how it’s the only plant where a monarch butterfly will lay its eggs. She’s an expert at finding the eggs. Some she raises until they hatch into...
If you haven’t had a chance to read my most recent novel, In Flight, you can get it here. There’s a brief scene in which our hero, Robert Besch, who survived a plane crash, fails to adequately explain his new outlook on life to his colleague, Dennis. But Dennis, who’s had his own near-death experience, thinks he understands what Robert might be going through and why things...
April 20 (4/20) is weed day. The day got its name in the 1970s in California when a group of high school students met after school around 4:20 to get high and 4/20 became a code phrase they could use in front of their parents. Clever stoner types, these high school kids. The reputation of 4/20 spread from there. 420 Magazine, founded in 1993, has a mission around creating cannabis awareness. I...
My next novel, IN FLIGHT, is about a business executive and family man who attempts to put his life back together after surviving a plane crash but also having suffered a trauma-induced dissociative mental state. It will be published this spring (and I’ll be sure to incessantly remind you). If you haven’t read the first chapter about Robert yet, click right here. The story details his marriage...
It’s nearing the tenth anniversary of my father’s death, and I keep thinking about something that happened in the last year of his life. I was involved, and I’ll never know if I did the right thing. At that time, Bob had been diagnosed but was still capable of living independently. My sister and I both lived in town and were keeping a close watch on him, checking in every day, knowing at some...
