A RAINDROP IN THE STORM (Linda’s Talk with God) Linda usually wakes up before I do. The first thing she does is have a little quiet time with God. After she did that this morning, she made coffee. There was a cup on my bedside table when I woke up. She was propped up on…
I started reading Anne Lamott in the late nineties. I wanted to move from playwriting, which I’d done for decades, to novels and had been told by a handful of smart people that Ms. Lamott’s Bird by Bird was as valuable a guide to writing good prose as I could find. I loved her voice,…
I have a child’s memory of World War II. My father was in the Army Air Force. He was a doctor stationed at various induction centers around the West and the Midwest: St. Louis, Lincoln Nebraska, Salt Lake City, and Colorado Springs. As a little boy, I remember a surge of emotion listening to the…
Accepting the gift horse is the important thing; dissecting the creature serves no purpose. We are offered a free ride. We’re meant to grab him/her by the mane swing up, and let it take us wherever it’s going. Troubles or not, life is a beautiful ride, what a joy to be offered the chance to…
I wrote a little play about thirty years ago. It’s about a family whose relationships keep shifting. I had no coherent point of view in mind when I wrote it. I just wanted to keep the audience interested. I got a call recently from a man who’s directing that play at a college in Northern…
I got a nice review (4 stars) not too long ago for my first book, “North of Hollywood.” Well, not entirely nice. It said some complimentary things, but the reviewer went on to say about the rating: “Because the dude is an ass for most of his life. Yes, he’s apologetic now, but he left…
I’ve begun to think lately that the current language of anger in our culture is less than useful, certainly less than kind (and it’s not such a terrible idea to be kind to people even when you’re angry with them). If someone crosses your path in such a way as to inconvenience you—like maybe they’re…