Manuscript
Master List

This list is updated whenever a new manuscript item is added. Items are listed alphabetically in the Stories, Essays, and Poems sections below. To request a PDF of any item, please submit your request in the comment field on the item’s page, and I will send you the PDF via email as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!

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 Stories

Alexia — A familiar familial scene, where everyone has a touch of alexia. (5 pgs, MP3 – 13:01)

Am Not Am *— It’s nice to be able to create yourself, but when you do, it’s a good idea to be careful how you handle the result. (10 pgs, MP3 – 27:44)

Anabasis — In the remote Maine woods, time stops, for a while. (3 pgs, MP3 – 8:22)

Another Threnody of Hope *— We’re never certain how we feel about one another, but sometimes the answer is as simple as a piece of toast. (26 pgs, MP3 – 58:42)

Archive Guy — Sometimes we just put too much pressure on ourselves. Sometimes the help just can’t take it any more. (5 pgs, MP3 – 11:41)

At the Chigger Festival — Never underestimate the creativity and dedication of tiny minds. (3 pgs, MP3 – 3:56)

Barnaby Goes Home *— Perhaps we can’t revisit the past, but we can try. And in so doing, perhaps the past can revisit us. (18 pgs, MP3 – 39:30)

Beatpiphany — Rolling through his brief beat road trip, one intrepid hipnik finally blows his mind. (5 pgs, MP3 – 12:05)

Deadness — One of the Big Questions, all of which might be reduced simply to “what the hell is going on?” (8 pgs, MP3 – 22:11)

Deaths in the Family *— The departure of a soul is a great mystery. For some it is tragic, for others mainly confusing, but for the soul departing, it might be magnificent. (9 pgs, MP3 – 22:41)

Driving to Boise — It’s a long, high road across the Wasatch, and the long, high drive takes on a life of its own. (5 pgs, MP3 – 12:32)

Eagle Dreams — Everybody wants to fly, and there are so many ways to do that. (11 pgs, MP3 – 25:25)

Everybody Gets a Drum — The drums of war beat in unexpected dimensions of our lives. Some of us march to a different beat, but the message is the same, and it surrounds us all. (29 pgs, MP3 – 1:15:42)

Expletive Pizza — Learning to be soldiers, all the boys and girls must also learn to be brave. (3 pgs, MP3 – 6:08)

Fire Circle — The quest for knowledge is as old as humanity. But when the truth is revealed, who can fathom its diversity and depth? (7 pgs, MP3 – 18:34)

Garbage — Watching the world go by outside the house may afford a surprising view of the tireless municipal workers who keep society moving. (5 pgs, MP3 – 10:34)

Glass Onion *— Memories aren’t always pleasant, but some of the brightest ones make up for all the rest. (9 pgs, MP3 – 23:02)

Half-Way There — Space junk isn’t always junk, and not all of it is orbiting the Earth. (10 pgs, MP3 – 24:11)

Highlights of Henry — Henry’s smart phone is not his friend, but it does its best to add to the confusion. (5 pgs, MP3 – 8:54)

Hole in the World — Revising someone else’s book can be trickier than it should be, especially with temporary brain damage and a recalcitrant author. (9 pgs, MP3 – 22:20)

Hoobner on the Post *— Even a dog’s life has its ups and downs and exceptional dogs are no exception. (8 pgs, MP3 – 20:22)

Interview with the Muse — Where does a writer get his inspiration? From his muse, of course. But where does she get hers? (7 pgs, MP3 – 13:14)

Interview with the Zombie *— Not the easiest guest to interview, but with a little heart and some empathy, it’s not all bad. (3 pgs, MP3 – 7:27)

iProduct Review — The new blog journalism triumphs again with this brilliant unboxing of the latest, latest, latest i-Item of the year. (5 pgs, MP3 – 10:43)

Letter to the Editor — It’s hard to get a story published, so you have to seize upon every opportunity to get yourself heard. But that pesky acquisitions editor! (7 pgs, MP3 – 14:15)

Little Torments *— It’s difficult to do what you’re told when they won’t tell you. (11 pgs, MP3 – 21:32)

Mistaken Identity — David Byrne once asked, “How do I work this thing?” Turns out that’s a very pertinent question, and for some more than just pertinent. (7 pgs, MP3 – 18:49)

Möbius Trip *— One thing leads to another, usually. But what if it doesn’t? Can the tale still unfold and carry us somewhere? (29 pgs, MP3 – 1:08:04)

Monkeytype (Reductio Simiorum) — If enough monkeys on typewriters work long enough, they’ll eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare. Or will they? (8 pgs, MP3 – 18:26)

Montague — How much RAM is required to store a person? Once stored there, what will he do? And what will we do with him? (8 pgs, MP3 – 19:59)

Mr. Smith’s Strange Day — Mr. Smith, as usual, is just doing the best he can, like the rest of us, but it’s not always easy to keep it all straight. (3 pgs, MP3 – 5:48)

No Brainer *— The brain is a marvelous instrument. Where would we be without it? (16 pgs, MP3 – 34:10)

Our Lady of the Ellington *— We’re all travelers, and some of us never escape life’s long series of lodgings and hotels. But for others, the resolution of a life can take them all the way home. (9 pgs, MP3 – 23:12)

Perfecter — As society evolves, everyone learns to accommodate. Unfortunately some folks just don’t have the required flexibility. (4 pgs, MP3 – 8:43)

Rocky Mountain High *— They said it was a diatribe. A filibuster against reason, to take refuge in a wall of words against the storm of impressions. Such nonsense, to think words protect against what has never been named! (5 pgs, MP3 – 14:42)

Rubbernecking — In the Covid pandemic, #MeToo still prevailed. But is it also Him Too, or Them Two? (3 pgs, MP3 – 7:35)

Signs *— It can be hard to find one’s way in life, but with luck there will be signposts in the fog. (3 pgs, MP3 – 6:56)

Simultaneity — How does the thinking machinery work? If we observe its mechanism up close, what does it tell us about ourselves? (4 pgs, MP3 – 10:49)

Somnium — Don’t you hate it when a story ends with, “It was all a dream?” This story begins there. (9 pgs, MP3 – 20:05)

Sunday Morning — Everyone has his or her section of the Sunday Times, with a little slice of domestic bliss on the side. (3 pgs, MP3 – 8:26)

The Beginning *— One inquisitive soul, lost in the skein of events and memories, tries to reason its way out to the surface. (9 pgs, MP3 – 23:45)

The Catastrophe — Karma is unfathomable, they say, but perhaps mischievous is a better word. An unembellished true story of Loki, Kokopelli, or Lila Shakti. (4 pgs, MP3 – 8:52)

The CD *— Sometimes Daniel could get carried away listening to a great piece of music. But this Brahms CD was going much too far. (20 pgs, MP3 – 48:26)

The Gates — Whatcha gonna do when St. Peter greets you? (8 pgs, MP3 – 17:15)

The Journalist *— When the psychology of a great psychologist comes into question, things can get dicey. (15 pgs, MP3 – 31:39)

The Knock *— Do you ever wake up suddenly after hearing a loud sound and discover it was nothing? What if it wasn’t? (8 pgs, MP3 – 17:51)

The Manneporte — Where does art start? (2 pgs, MP3 – 3:46)

The Meaning of Life *— When things go wrong, we look everywhere for resolutions, but the resolution can go wrong, too. (12 pgs, MP3 – 28:54)

The Mirror *— Desperate times call for desperate measures, but the worst may be just around the corner. Or in your room. (11 pgs, MP3 – 27:32)

The Myth of the Long Road — In this modern, secular world, mythic elements lie hidden beneath quotidian disguises, but are nonetheless real. (4 pgs, MP3 – 11:53)

The Red Nun — When you’re just a boy, your world is full of limits and constraints, but the mysteries and possibilities are unbounded. (17 pgs, MP3 – 37:11)

The Tiger — Logic and imagination don’t always work together, but sometimes you just have to give it a chance. (2 pgs, MP3 – 2:32)

Thin Air — Sometimes the path is so narrow and convoluted that the only option is just to go on. (10 pgs, MP3 – 22:14)

Tiny Sam — We take the simplest things for granted. But maybe it’s not that simple. (1 pg, MP3 – 2:29)

Underground *— We all have our roles to play, and once in a while a streak of kindness, or even nobility, shines through. (7 pgs, MP3 – 16:44)

Winter Moon — In the end, it’s what you’ve done, and what you haven’t done, and none of the above. (3 pgs, MP3 – 7:56)

Writing in Restaurants *— Here’s a micro-collection of nano-fiction that takes place in restaurants because, well, there’s a lot of drama in restaurants. If you’re reading this in 2020, restaurants used to be places people went — in groups! — to eat meals together. (4 pgs, MP3 – 10:58)

Yoznok — First contact, inspired by the pulp Sci-Fi magazines of the 1950’s. Don’t look a gift-Yoznok in the mouth. (4 pgs, MP3 – 9:28)

*Story first appeared in Brain Frieze (Mulberry Knoll, 2014). See bottom of page to purchase on Amazon.

 

Essays

 

Notes on Feedback and Continuous ImprovementHow do we know we are successful in our endeavors? More importantly, how do we find out if we could be more successful? The essence of continuous improvement is feedback.

Notes on Presenting IdeasPresentations should engage the audience in an enjoyable thought process that leaves them better informed. Here are some notes on making a presentation more interesting and memorable.

Writing from ScratchDo you ever have to write about something important, but you don’t know where to start?

Poems

Green Nightsong

Horizons

How Do I Work this Thing?

Iowa Night

Lament for Lost Silence

Last Night

Last Writing, Final Draft

Maine Song

Mojave

Morning

Musing

Near Lindos, Rhodes

Possibilities

Reality

Sequestered Love

Shipyard

Spinthariscope

The Dealer’s Left

The Offering

The Path

The River

The Waves of All Our Pasts

These Highest Dreams

Turning Point

Untitleable

What Is the Soul?

 

To request a PDF, please submit your request in the comment field below the linked text, and I will send you the PDF via email as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!