Favorites can be finicky things. As a kid I had this idea that “favorite” meant exclusive. There could be only one favorite friend, or TV show, or band. With age and wisdom I learned that favorite is a grouping. There can be more than one. All the better if there is more than one. Still,…
We just passed the summer solstice and that means it is all downhill from here. From now until December 21, the days will gradually grow shorter. I prefer more daylight than less daylight. My rhythms revolve around daylight. I wake with the sun–or with the brightening sky. These days, it means I’m usually up around…
For as far back as I can remember, I have had the occasional odd thought that when I go to bed at night, I will wake up and it will be sometime far in the past of my life, and everything since that time has been a dream. Sometimes, the thought comes after a particular…
This time of year we spend our Friday evenings at the pool club where we are members. There are two large pools, plus a kiddie pool. The pool is staffed with life guards. There is a snack bar and regular bar, The Deep End, that serves a variety of food and drinks. There is a…
Yesterday I began writing the 3rd draft of a new story I’m working on–the first story I’ve finished in quite a few years. I handwrote the first two drafts in a composition notebook, consuming about the first 80 pages of the notebook between the two drafts and my notes. The third draft is going into…
I am writing this post about 45 minutes before you will read it. It is the first time I’ve done that in nearly 6 months, and the main reason is that I’ve burned through my backlog of scheduled posts. There are several reasons for this. First, I have spent the last month writing a new…
Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is a bird nest in our mailbox. It all started with a bird feeder that the Littlest Miss made in school. She came home with it one day a month back and that evening, we tried to figure out a place to put it…
Not every writer is a great reader of their own work. (This writer, raising his hand.) In listening to audiobooks, I have found over the years, substitute voices for writers who don’t narrate their own work. I think of these voices as if it is the writer’s own voice. There is a comfort and familiarity…
Back on May 26 I finished writing the first draft of a new story. This was something of a milestone for me. I’ve written about my five-year bout with writer’s block when it comes to fiction-writing. This new story represents the first story draft that I have completed since 2015–even before my soon-to-be six-year old…
For as long I can remember, my showers have been orderly affairs of strictly utilitarian purpose, varying only by season. In the depth of winter, I take them scalding hot. In the heat of summer, I don’t even bother with the hot water faucet. Aside from that, I’ve tried to make my showers as quick…