First, a quick synopsis that contains no real spoilers. Swan Song was gifted to me about twenty years ago by a close friend who said, “Read this. It’s right up your alley.” Too foolish to heed my friend’s advice, though she knew well my love for science fiction, fantasy, horror...

Hemingway wrote a story called “A Clean Well-Lighted Place.” In it, he contrasts light and darkness. Darkness symbolizes loneliness, despair, death and the nothingness of man. The light of the clean, well-lighted cafe in which the story takes place suggests comfort, peace, pleasantness and the company of others. It’s a great...

The long awaited new collection is finished. We’re in the middle stages of editing/proofing and I intend to have A Candle in the Dark and other tales available for purchase in early August. Please don’t hold me to that. But it should be soon. This was a fun collection to...

This past couple of weeks, I’ve been working through the rough draft of a short story. I have the basic outline in my mind. I know what’s happening, for the most part. And I know some of the middle. Going in, there was so much I did not know about...

Trigger Warning: this thing meanders a bit. Follow me, the trail is not straight, but we’ll get there. This is the first blog entry for this new site. And I thought it best to start things off with a word on the writing life. Or, at least, what my life...

Rejection is hard to deal with. I’ve found it especially difficult to receive rejections for stories I write with specific markets in mind. I take time to tailor a tale to the specifics I think an open call is asking for, then get met with “this isn’t a good fit.”...