New cold does things to me.  Portland was cold when I left and seeing the leaves churned things up in me.  I wake in the middle of the night with blankets wrapped around me and cold night air blowing in from the window and I think that this is how it feels in Ohio.  If [...]

I know I said last time that I would push my personal life under for a while, and make this a little more literary.  But this is a necessary exorcism.

Friday I went to a potluck with a number of people in my MFA program.  I made goulash from a simple recipe my mother sent me– [...]

Long Way Home and its brood are at heart books about two best friends.  Despite the distance between them through much of the books their friendship is always at play, often at the forefront of their minds–insofar as they think (Red’s more of a doer).  I’ve always found that immutable and often ineffable camaraderie to [...]

My step-brother died in a car accident a day or two ago.  I don’t know the details and I don’t know what to make of it.  We haven’t talked in years.  He’s an ex-step-brother, I guess you’d say.  We hated each other for the better part of our time together.  He had it rough, rougher [...]

You’ll find I’m not one for titles.  I want to preface all this by saying that I am a writer–shock– and alongside sleeping, breathing, eating, and the latter’s natural follower, writing is something that keeps me together.  Like all writers I fuck with things a little.  I smudge here, smear, stretch.  My novels are never [...]

She made a 19 second video of herself, in her room, at the mirror.  All manner of disarray, bottles of all those mystifying things men have no use for–scarves(?), beads, makeup brushes.  There’s a nice song playing in the background.  I can see her chair, her desk, something on the mantel.  But it’s taken me [...]

I’ve written more here since I’ve gotten the blog together than I wrote in a month at My Heart’s Porch.  May be something you’ll have to get used to.
The above is Modest Mouse, a band I could go on and on about.  They’re great.  We’ll leave it at that.  The first post here, “The Blog [...]

The day before I left one of my best friends came into town to see me off.  She gave me a small glass bottle, and I knew immediately what was in it.  Ohio earth, “with some from Chimayo sprinkled in for the hell of it.”  It was with her that I’d first gone west, first [...]