We hear a lot these days about the trauma suffered by soldiers who go to war, but is it possible for a soldier to be traumatized by not going to war?  If you think about it, there was a period between the end of the Vietnam Conflict and the Operation…

Turkey Day and Black Friday have passed, typically two days of consumer excess.  By now the good dishes have been washed and put away, the holiday silverware is safely back in the special green felt-lined wooden box tucked back in the buffet. Most of the leftover turkey and sides have…

I admit that the title of this post isn’t original, but I figure that if it was good enough for Bilbo Baggins, it’s certainly good enough for me.  I am now home again after spending almost a month on the road and slowly beginning to pick up where I left…

Since I had a few minutes, I thought I might explain the genesis of “Sock Monkey, Crucified”, a story I wrote for my last post.  The story provides a good example of how simple things observed have the potential to create fiction.  Was the story good or bad?  I’m not…

My Halloween post included part of a story and I posed the question as to where you might take the story, given its various elements.  Today’s post includes one solution for the story.  Certainly there may be others and if you’ve given the subject some thought I certainly hope you’ll…

It’s Halloween and I couldn’t let my favorite holiday go by without a post. Nothing eerie, nothing scary, just a little odd. Think about this. Chester Hendricks was not a superstitious man by any standard definition of the word.  He wasn’t scared of black cats and he cared nothing about…

Yes, literally, on the road again.  No flying this time.  Another business trip, but this time it’s a road trip to South Carolina.  The weather has been superb and I am with same team that accompanied me to Idaho.  We are in a hotel at night (complete with free breakfast…

Very late last night I came dragging in after a number of delightful hours squeezed into spaces barely fit for human habitation, much less flight.  About the only good thing I can say for the experience is that Coke and peanuts are still complimentary and my car was still sitting…

No, this has nothing at all to do with the movie, which by the way I have never seen.  I just like the title.  And it is appropriate because that’s where I am tonight, Idaho.  I’m here on business and I must admit it is different from Florida.  They have…

Whether you’re a writer or a reader, what you read becomes an element of the psychological sum of your parts.  Consciously or subconsciously all the words, images, and emotions associated with what you read become part of you.  They find a niche somewhere inside your mind and wait there, quietly…