I saw a man in the hardware store. He was unremarkable from behind, but when he turned around, I initially couldn’t identify what I was seeing. It simply did not compute. Then I almost screamed. He was only a few years older than me and didn’t have an ounce of fat anywhere else on his…
On friendship and geopolitics
March 25, 2014
The Russian annexation of the Crimea has put a huge strain on my friendship with the Russian colonel. It’s a shame because he’s a nice man. To my sorrow I’ve discovered that when it comes to friendship and geopolitics, the former depends on the latter. For many people, that is. Not for me. I didn’t…
It takes more than that to scare me
March 24, 2014
This short film has been getting a lot of buzz. It’s called Lights Out and is only 128 seconds long. Some people have said it’s the most frightening movie ever made. It takes more to scare me, but I’ll let you be the judge. Personally I wasn’t scared at all. I didn’t even flinch. You…
The theft ring strikes again
March 24, 2014
As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a theft ring in the United States Postal Service. It’s based in New York. The American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, negotiated rules that when mail from a foreign country goes missing, American postal inspectors can’t look for it. Instead, the country from which the mail originated has to investigate. The…
What separates me from my brother Tim
March 24, 2014
I’ve written a lot about my brother Tim. He and my brother Eric are the people to whom I’m closest in the world. Tim designed the covers of all three books in the Ghosts Trilogy. Each cover was one basically “one and we’re done.” We discussed ideas for Ghosts and Ballyhoo, but after that I…
I will not submit
March 21, 2014
The death of my father changed me in fundamental ways. Probably the most significant consequence of Dad’s passing was that it made me aware of how much of my life I’d given over to him. He got what he wanted, regardless of the cost to others. Now that he’s no longer here, you need to…