Early Mendocino County is filled with many yarns and tales. One of the characters in Outlaw Ford (the novel excerpted here) states, “Sometimes you have to lie to get at the truth.” That's more or…
Posts published in “Essays”
Even at this late date in the arc of my life, I am occasionally invited to speak to high school kids about the career path of a writer. When I explain to those soliciting me to speak that I am not a journalist or a non-fiction writer or a writer of murder mysteries or bodice rippers or young adult dystopian vampire novellas, but rather a writer of unclassifiable fiction and essays, and I further explain that I don’t recommend my career path to anyone because that would be to recommend working long hours seven days a week for five decades, my wages paltry and unreliable. After such an explanation, the invitations are withdrawn.
Last Wednesday, September 23, the AV Panthers traveled south to Santa Rosa for the first of a number of season-defining matches. this one against five-time defending regular-season champions, Roseland Prep. These games have always been…
Ever since I first saw the Mauch twins, Billy and Bobby, in the movie version of Mark Twain’s Prince and the Pauper, I’ve been keen on films where the actor plays a multiple role, like…
Hunters Point, home to the last peninsula based losers in the lottery of class warfare, is a world away from the rolling hills and rampant overconsumption of Napa and its environs. The folks who call…
It was a good day. I had busted ass. The pool sparkled. The Tennis court was swept and the proscribed factory sealed tennis balls were set out ready for use. The 1/2 acre of lawn…
Marine Corps veterans have formed their own suicide-prevention network for reasons laid out in a very powerful article by Dave Philipps in the New York Times Sept. 20. The men Philipps writes about served in…
I and a brace of the core members of my retinue were passing a Friday evening in a most pleasant fashion, quaffing cocktails and partaking of various deep-fried morsels at TW's, the bar at the…
Perfect or near-perfect matches between author and subject are rare, indeed, in the world of publishing. Jay Parini’s Empire of Self, a new biography of Gore Vidal, is one of them. A long-time biographer as…