Two Trace Stories Revisited for Momentary Relevance

The last few days I have been working on an essay for the Re:Print department of Pop Matters, tentatively titled Ernest Hemingway’s Mystic Communion; the topic, inspired by Terry Mort’s non-fiction work, The Hemingway Patrols, concerned with the celebrated author’s quixotic pursuit of German U-boats off the coastal waters of Cuba during World War II, [...]

Soon Becomes Now

For the last two months I have been assiduously scribbling notes in a black basic journal for my new novel, intended for mainstream publishers, not the self-publication route. At the moment I write this, my sciatica is throbbing and an infected tooth is announcing its sinister intent so I have taken an extra prescription painkiller [...]

2010: Year in Review

This was an unsettling year, not just for me, of course, but for anyone concerned about the state of the arts and politics at the federal and civic level. Throughout 2010, my creative output was scattershot at best, waylaid by a seemingly never-ending series of personal and professional setbacks, many of which I wrote about [...]

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

[Originally published at 8763 Wonderland, 12/22/05] It was three days before Christmas and Trace felt a black depression coming on. “Jesus Christ,” he muttered. “There wasn’t enough left of her to put in a shoe box.” “Providing it’s a child’s-size shoe box,” Wellbeck confirmed. The Public Information Officer for the L.A. County Coroner’s Office offered [...]

Trace and the Christmas Shoppers

                 [Originally published at 8763 Wonderland, December 12, 2005, and Flaker HQ, 2005] It was a dry and crisp Saturday afternoon with fifteen days remaining on the calendar before Christmas. Trace never paid much attention to calendars except for their usefulness in plotting a magazine deadline. There was a time when he always had a [...]