I had the privilege of hearing Kurt Vonnegut speak once toward the end of his life. I was overwhelmed by his humor and humanity. He was a unique and brilliant individual [...]

My father is long gone, having died in January 2007, and at first he seemed to hang around—at the foot of my bed, threatening to twist my toe to wake me up; across from me at my desk, telling me I might be working too hard [...]

It is Independence Day. There is red, white and blue bunting hung from porches and windows. The air has the scent of smoke; it’s there in the background but always present. You almost don’t notice it...

Once, a long time ago, I lived in a house near the edge of the world. In the winter, when the air was still, I would lie awake at night and listen to the Ocean, to the waves. Relentless. Never-ending. […]

“The Masque of the Red Death” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe originally published in 1842. It tells the story of a group of wealthy nobles attempting to avoid a plague [...]

Once, a long time ago, I stood in the sky far above the world. The observation deck of the World Trade Center was more than 1000 feet high. The windows were wide, floor-to-ceiling glass. The first thing I did was […]

I sit and look out my back window into the yard behind my house. It is large and full of trees; a combination of fir and pine and aspen. On this day, early in the morning, it is cold and […]

In the darkness, you were dreaming. Dreaming and that is all. You did not see what you thought you saw. You did not experience what you thought you thought was so real. There was not a shape, a shape in […]

My first trip to the Faraway Lands came through a Magical Box and was quite unexpected. It happened when I was seven years old and grounded. Now, to my knowledge, there are three ways to get to the Faraway Lands. […]

A long time ago, way back in college, I had an apartment two blocks off Height Street in San Francisco. It was a nondescript thing just a box on the third floor where the “rooms” were defined by how you […]