All of life is composed of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. Mostly it is water that fills living cells and acts as the medium for organization and awareness. Water, then, could be God. And carbon, the devil. Or perhaps water is the fundament of heaven and God the electricity that flows through it, and the other trace elements the pantheon of gods. And carbon the devil.

If there is a heaven, and a God, why do we need to consider it as all in another world, another plane? It seems that it would be much more efficient for heaven and hell and the general mayhem of the cosmos Continue reading →

I have been planning on upgrading this website’s offerings for the past three months and learned in the process that what I wanted to do isn’t feasible using the standard WordPress.com system. So I decided yesterday to move to WordPress.org, which is actually just using their software on a WebHost of my choice. I chose BlueHost.

This is my first post on this new system. It’s still not set up properly. I’m hoping that my domain name translates within the next 48-hours. If you Continue reading →

You can now buy Implosions of America: Nine Stories at Amazon’s Kindle Store ($2.99 is a good deal). It’s also available as a paperback at CreateSpace.com and the Amazon book site for $7.99.

These nine stories are about life as a maturing American watching maturing Americans mature. We all know how life can implode on us at any given moment. I am fascinated by how implosions usually don’t destroy us. They make us better and stronger and teach us lessons. And yet life continues to be such a special mess for each of us.

Implosions? Well, these stories aren’t really about huge destructions to personality, they’re more about the small stuff and the way that small stuff can affect love, dignity, and what gives meaning to waking up every day. Most of these stories, I realize after finishing the book, are memory games where longing and affection act like fogs over reality.

What I wanted to do with this book was try as best I could to remake the male psyche Continue reading →

Below is a very short excerpt from the middle of a story in the collection Implosions of America. I’ve tried as best I can over the years to write interesting, uncommon fiction that both touches deep and makes the reader wonder about the meaning of life. Don’t ever stop wondering. Don’t ever stop looking to be touched. That is what art is all about.

From “So Beautiful,” a story about reconnecting and maturing beyond beauty. 

…She said she wanted to work with grizzly bears and wolves. She said people didn’t understand them. She wanted to represent wild animals. She said that Americans needed to know that black bears will track people for food just like polar bears.

“I read a story once,” she said softly, coming down off her tears. “It was about a black bear that stole children from a village in New England and piled them in a cave on the outskirts of town. The villagers finally found the children, still alive, but wildly frightened and cold. The bear had been filling the pockets of their coats with uneaten pieces of fish he’d caught. He was using the village children to store food for the winter.”

She told me this and in my memory I saw her beautiful face and gentle lips quivering below me. Back then I never imagined someone of such beauty could have those thoughts and laugh so dangerously close to insanity. … <snip>

Implosions of America: Nine Stories will be released to the Amazon Kindle Store on Friday, November 16.