the Blue Route

THE TWO CHRISTMAS EVE BABIES

THE TWO CHRISTMAS EVE BABIES

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It was Christmas Eve—early afternoon, at least, on the day before Christmas. Morton Memorial Hospital was busy, but the staff was in a collectively…

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CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND THE CHATEAU MARMONT

CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND THE CHATEAU MARMONT

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Sometimes writers worry that we’re losing our creative mojo, abandoned by our best friend: the power of imagination. It all starts with dreams…or doesn’t….

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STORY TIME, AND THE GHOST OF JOHANN BRILL

STORY TIME, AND THE GHOST OF JOHANN BRILL

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When I was small I used to go for walks with my father. My favorite destination was the old J.G. Brill Company factory adjacent…

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FRIENDLY GHOSTS, AND THE EDGE OF FOREVER

FRIENDLY GHOSTS, AND THE EDGE OF FOREVER

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While looking through some old boxes in a storage locker recently I found a short story I wrote when I was nineteen: “Friendly Ghosts,…

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SATAN’S LAGOON

SATAN’S LAGOON

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“Satan’s Lagoon” was the prologue that opened earlier versions of WILDWOOD. The novel ultimately took another direction, but a detour back to The Lagoon…

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RANCID

RANCID

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The published version of THE BLUE ROUTE opens with an attempted hit and run in Los Angeles. Earlier drafts of the novel, however, began…

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THE LONELY COOL BEFORE DAWN

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‘The lonely cool before dawn’ is of course a great, evocative line from one of the best songs ever written: Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”. It’s…

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MILE 59

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I don’t cry very often, for better or worse. I never did, really, not even as a child. Maybe I didn’t see the point,…

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WILDWOOD BY THE SEA AND THE RIVER OF TIME

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I was sitting on a bench on the Wildwood N.J. boardwalk, killing time with a brain-dead smart phone and a birch beer, waiting to…

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WILDWOOD

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Greed, revenge, old hatreds and a million-dollar payday draw a disparate and dangerous cast of con artists, dreamers and sociopaths to the wild carnival…

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