I tied up the ends up my latest novel yesterday. Each chapter was reordered, checked against the overall arc and outline, and sections rewritten and cut with ruthless vigor. Then came the Xtra-Fun™ process of pagination and chapter labeling. You…
I tied up the ends up my latest novel yesterday. Each chapter was reordered, checked against the overall arc and outline, and sections rewritten and cut with ruthless vigor. Then came the Xtra-Fun™ process of pagination and chapter labeling. You…
Holy Jeezum Crow and a whole bunch of other sanitized versions of non-curse sayings! It’s the first day of Spring! This means today is cool and overcast because San Diego just likes to be different. Not Portland or Austin different,…
When it comes to car repair, you don’t usually get out cheap. This weekend I spent a staggering amount of money getting the brakes fixed on my car and my wife’s car. Mine needed new brake pads and, although I…
Okay, here it comes, the great self-referential post for the week. Every year I make Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day. Is it because it’s the one day when you’re so drunk you won’t notice if the bread doesn’t…
What can you dredge up through the neural soup of your mind and qualify as your earliest memory? Mine comes from a time when I was three or four, and it’s of our housekeeper extinguishing a lit match in her…
It has happened again. With the best intentions, my wife has planted some kale in our garden. Sure, it’ll provide some leafy green now and again. You might think of the neat bundle of kale you find in the produce…
Almost two years after visiting the Quail Botanical Gardens with little Child Harbat, we went back with bigger Child Harbat and The Boy, AKA Number Two. The gardens are just as delightful and the now with one child slightly larger…
Some people, my wife among them, hate airports, airplanes, and all the recycled-air and bustle of people hassle of air travel. I’m from an rare breed that loves airports, the smell of unburned kerosene, the rush of jet engines, the…
Each one of these Odes involves a fair amount of research, reminding me how long I’ve been doing this. What part am I on again? Have I really written about this five times already? Ahh, but this isn’t about the…
Chalk one up for the marvel of the market system. Five minutes after my last post I’d found a mug that looked like it would fit the bill. One hour later I walked to a Starbucks two blocks from my…