I’m a big fan of live chamber music: string quartets, violin and harpsichord sonatas, baroque symphonies. If you are at all interested in music, I highly recommend going to a performance. There are far worse ways to spend a few hours than giving a couple of bucks to a local musician (such performances are usually … More WWGWD?
Over the past twenty years or so, I’ve seen the growth of the phenomenon where authors and other creatives put several pages into their books, discussing the people whose works influenced them. When I was your age, you didn’t find a long “acknowledgements” section at the end of a book or an author’s introduction where … More Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
I am marking this day in my calendar. Today is the day that I officially declare the first draft of Fixit to be done. My first (completed) novel. I think I’m in shock. I know I’m crying, and they’re tears of joy. What a relief! Proof positive at long last that I can embark on … More Tears Of Joy
[Total sidetracking: I grew up thinking the word above was spelled ‘spicket.’ Because that’s how my sire pronounced it. ‘Spic-ket,’ a hard consonant clipping. I found out I was wrong at the spelling bee in 7th grade. Heh. The two years I attempted the spelling bee, I got nailed on the first word. But I’ve … More Someone Left The Spigot On
I have a problem. It may require some kind of treatment or therapy, I’m not sure. But it eats at me, absorbing my energies, burning my time, and holding my attention. Every time I think I’m free of it, it hits me again. No matter if it’s 4 a.m. or in the middle of my … More Too Many Threads
Y’all haven’t seen me in a while. Like several months. I’m a bad correspondent and I’ll be the first to admit it. However, this time I’m going to claim that it’s really not my fault. Back at the time of my last post (September, 2021 for those keeping score) I was on a high because … More Not A Fun Hobby
It’s been a while since I posted anything. But! It hasn’t been more than 24 hours since I wrote something of substance. I’m on the writing train again, and have been for the past couple of weeks. It’s been a gusher and I couldn’t be happier. I have a friend to thank for that. She’s … More Collaborative Mayhem
Castalia stood on the edge of the hole in the middle of the floor. Its ragged edges were characteristic of this rundown little shithole bar; broken ends of floorboards promised splinters for anyone stupid enough to slide along them. The hole itself was about five feet deep and had been wallowed out to an almost … More In Search Of A Friend
Feeding presented a specific sort of problem for Castalia. Ever since she’d downed that damnable potion (Honestly! She’d used it before, and the thing only lasted a few days. She was now going on a month of being a vampire and had no idea when it would wear off. Of if it would wear off … More In Search Of A Friend, Part 2
NOTE: This piece was originally intended to slot into the cryopunk world I was developing and displayed in my post “Too Many People.” Who knows? I still might. WARNING: This fragment is graphic. You’ve been warned. He didn’t know her name; he didn’t know any names of his horrors. But she was young and round … More Gruesome Fragment
The Painted Corner 