Trust but Verify

The year 2020 scrambled my brains and my life. I couldn’t tell Monday from Wednesday, up from down, or front to back. Like this collage, it seemed everything was jumbled. How about you/? Did you feel a pandemic onslaught interrupting your tried-and-true lifestyle and challenging your habits? Whichever way you turned, was there another obstacle? Mask or no mask; social distance or not; vaccinate or not; or simply stay home and say, “The heck with it.” For us, there was a bright side or two or three to this otherwise pandemic-scrambling year. Creativity flows in my blood, and that bears fruit in my novels, short stories, and screenplays. And, too, it bore fruit, or should I say meat, in my newfound culinary delight—cooking. While cooking took on a new joyful pastime, I also found creative fun in the presentation of meals. The entire process of dinner took on a whole new meaning—the fireplace dancing its orange and yellow flames, music flowing from the Bose, the chandelier dimmed, the ta...

The Silver Lining My writing history began with a silver lining in a very large, dark cloud. I was a young child living with my parents and brothers and sister in Kansas City, Missouri. I was a sickly little guy. Even in second grade I was hardly bigger that a #2 lead pencil. I suffered severely with asthma, almost to the point of death. The summers with their heat, humidity, and heavy pollen counts kept me housebound, unable to run outside with my siblings and neighbor kids. Winter was no better. The wet, cold weather was the wedge that kept me confined to the house. There was no escape—summer or winter. Finally, my life was forever changed when two nuns showed up at my front door to offer a solution, and quite possibly save my life. This solution would take me several states away from my family to live in the arid pollen-free state of Arizona in an orphanage.   Bye, Mama I've written a short piece that will give you a snapshot of the heart breaking ...