Blog
Reflections on reading Gone Girl
I read the NY Times runaway bestseller Gone Girl last month. There were plenty of other things I could have read. It's not like I've read everything of note, every Murakami book that has been recommended, every Franzen, Eugenides, Eggers, Gaiman, Chabon. I'd like to...
3 Days in Rome: on borrowing the lives of others for your fiction
There is a running joke among authors. "Lookout, or I'll write you into one of my stories! Ha ha!" I said it's a joke. But for many authors it's no joke. On October 19, 1998, The Author's Guild held a panel discussion titled "Whose life is it anyway?" There were four...
What Happened to Penny?
An excerpt from The Former Hero. With a clamor she burst onto the bright doorstep, one hand across her brow. She strode out to the street and looked one way and then the other. Up and down the sidewalk she saw a long mural of pastel chalk drawings: a winged horse and...
Lucy and the ongoing quest for superheroism
If you are like me and do not have your analytical faculties constantly running full bore, you may have looked at the movie trailer for Lucy and thought to yourself, "Hm. Looks cool. And maybe for once Scarlett Johanssen will have a role where she can show a little...
Flash fiction – The Test
The young girl sat in the bathroom stall. It was the same stall, the only stall she had ever used since she arrived seven months ago. Even if it was occupied she would wait by the sink and nip nervously at hangnails until the occupant left. Nobody could say they knew...
Animal or human, which one are you
One of my working theories about humanity has to do with the continuity and discontinuity between people and animals. How much are we "family" with the animal kingdom? What evidence is there that we are different than animals? Where does the break take place? There...
2013 Epic Vacation
Our family had the epic vacation last summer. Some people were so impressed they asked for the itinerary. Here it is. We rented a nice, clean minivan. Made a huge difference to have a nice car, and it wasn't wildly expensive. Under $300 I think. Day 1 - Drive from...
Reaching that age
I thought of an analogy. Adolescence is like walking through a tunnel made of one-way mirrors. All you can see is yourself reflected on every wall, but meanwhile every one else is outside the tunnel watching you, awkward, only seeing yourself, lumbering through this...
On death by drug overdose
Like many people, I was deeply saddened by the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. He had some great lead roles (Synecdoche New York, The Master, Doubt, and of course his Oscar-winning performance in Capote which I wasn't crazy about). But we also remember him for many...
A Time to Quit – new article on Catapult
"Quitting for me wasn’t just a weekend fling, a lack of endurance, a fit of boredom or a childish sulk sparked by a temper tantrum. When it came time for me to quit pastoral ministry, it was as if I had quit myself, my goals, my calling and the self-understanding that...
