Writing
I’m a writer in addition to being an editor and creative consultant, and I began being published when I was a young spoken word poet. Now I write and publish memoirs, travel and music stories, fiction, and meditation pieces. Click on any entry below or on older entry pages to read my work!
Creative Courage and Vulnerability: An Invitation To My Medium Day Session on Aug 12, 2023
Learn how to take risks and be authentic with your writing and creativity! I’m happy to announce that I’ll be talking about Creative Courage and Vulnerability on Saturday, August 12th, as part of the Medium Day international virtual conference! My session will happen...
Tedium 7 – Delilah’s Confession (Fiction)
Music rose from the jukebox. First a whispered woman’s voice singing, then gentle guitar spilled over a seductive dance of bass, percussion, and piano. Jarette immediately recognized the song and the singer. Once I Loved by Astrud Gilberto. “You like this, Cowboy?”...
Fourth Grade Broke My Face (Memoir)
It was late September and I could feel winter coming. The leaves had changed color and the grass was nearly brown. Winter was always around the corner in Granite City. Snow often fell in October and stayed until May. At Westforest Elementary, teachers made us go...
My Wicked Kindergarten Teacher (Memoir)
We sat cross-legged on the colorful carpet in three rows. 30 small bodies looking straight ahead with young, innocent faces at Mrs. Kablutsen. She stood in front of an empty blackboard and seemed too old to be a kindergarten teacher. Mrs. Kablutsen looked like the...
I Was Born on the Thumb of a Hitchhiker’s Curse (Fact-based Fiction)
An occasionally, mostly true tale. When my parents named me after a hitchhiker they picked up in a blizzard somewhere between Wyoming and Nebraska, I don’t believe they had the intention that I become a hitchhiker myself. But that’s what happened. I became someone...
Tom Cat the Owl Man Was My Cellmate (Memoir)
Before I was taken to my jail cell, the guards made me undress and put on ‘blues’. My new wardrobe. Criminal pajamas. Then one of them taunted me by loudly spitting out from over his desk, “Hope you don’t have claustrophobia!” I did have a fear of enclosed spaces and...
In the Middle of the Night, I Searched for Stories (Memoir)
In the middle of the night, I would wake up under a heavy, red blanket. I’d peer out into my dark, little room from high on my brass bed and survey the shadows on the walls. If there was nothing scary, I’d slide the blanket off my little body and prepare for...
It Was 20 Years Ago Today, the Night Watchmen Released “Lost in California” (Music Memoir)
Who were the Night Watchmen? Some of you reading will know but most of you won’t. This story is about the band I formed in San Francisco in 2001, and the dark, vaudeville, jazz, blues, and punk-infused music we made together. Our costumes, backstage chaos, circus...
The River, the Railroad Bridge, and the Man with a Knife (Memoir)
The air was so cold that it felt like my lungs would crack when I breathed. We were rushing from the car into the street. Four white-trash, teenage punks on a Friday night rampage. Out onto the icy blacktop of our Central Minnesotan wasteland. Into the freedom of...
A Waterman’s Homecoming and Near Death in Nosara (Surf Memoir)
It had been years since I paddled out. When I stepped out onto the beach in Nosara, Costa Rica, there were lines upon lines of gorgeous, glassy waves. Shimmering, blue, and peeling both to the left and right. I felt like a little boy getting ready to open birthday...