THE TWO CHRISTMAS EVE BABIES
byIt was Christmas Eve—early afternoon, at least, on the day before Christmas. Morton Memorial Hospital was busy, but the staff was in a collectively…
the Blue Route
CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND THE CHATEAU MARMONT
bySometimes 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….
STORY TIME, AND THE GHOST OF JOHANN BRILL
byWhen I was small I used to go for walks with my father. My favorite destination was the old J.G. Brill Company factory adjacent…
FRIENDLY GHOSTS, AND THE EDGE OF FOREVER
byWhile looking through some old boxes in a storage locker recently I found a short story I wrote when I was nineteen: “Friendly Ghosts,…
SATAN’S LAGOON
by“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…
RANCID
byThe published version of THE BLUE ROUTE opens with an attempted hit and run in Los Angeles. Earlier drafts of the novel, however, began…
THE LONELY COOL BEFORE DAWN
by‘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…
MILE 59
byI 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,…
WILDWOOD BY THE SEA AND THE RIVER OF TIME
byI 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…
WILDWOOD
byGreed, revenge, old hatreds and a million-dollar payday draw a disparate and dangerous cast of con artists, dreamers and sociopaths to the wild carnival…