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Closing the Loop
It’s pissing down rain in Seattle. The lecherous wind tugs and young women’s skirts as they tick-tock their high-heeled way to work, and the few who bothered with umbrellas wish they’d left them at...
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Requiescat in Compost
Today, as wide-eyed robins tweedle at the bluing grey of the overcast Seattle dawn, I prepare to say farewell to an old friend. Nearly twenty years ago, we bought this, our first house. It was a...
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Seattle’s Other Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) gets a lot of press. With its prominent location, its recent mega-buck expansion, and its “Hammering Man” sculpture out front, it gets noticed and it gets visited–a lot....
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Lion’s Tooth
Doc Maynard had a wife. Two of them, actually, and simultaneously, some say. David S. “Doc” Maynard, one of Seattle’s more colorful founders, married Catherine Simmons Broshear Maynard, a widow he had...
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My Chariot of Fire
Today, the buzz in Seattle is not: The NBA kibosh on moving the Sac’to Kings to Seattle The Anarchists arriving for their annual May Day (aka Loot&Pillage Day) festivities The opening of Boating...
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Why I Write
Yeah, sure. “I write because…because I must,” he said as he fell back in a swoon, hand to forehead. Blah, blah, blah. Flip it to the B-Side, Sonny. [Jeez...how many of you don't know what I mean by...
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Prepare to Stop
It’s been a tough couple of weeks. After Memorial Day, my wife’s mother went in for surgery, and she’s still in the hospital now, almost three weeks later. We’ve gone from the staff saying we should...
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Threshing for Facts
For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing research for The Wolf Tree. It’s been an education, in several ways. Seattle isn’t like New York or San Francisco or London. I don’t have dozens of books to...
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Getting it Right
…and why it matters. I’m still researching Seattle history for my next book, The Wolf Tree, trudging through Thomas Prosch’s bone-dry but fact-filled Chronological History of Seattle from 1850 to 1897....
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Small Details, Big Solution
First, a welcome to our new subscribers. At some point we popped up over the 200 member mark, which I find pretty cool. So, thanks, all, for your interest. My free time this weekend was spent...
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My Bay of San Pablo
The moon is only first quarter, but the tide was low as my bus drove into Seattle. The cool breeze off the Sound brought in that parfum de la mer–a mixture of salt, sea, and tideflat–that sends me a...
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The Unexpected Question
On Saturday, my wife asked the question a million spouses want to hear. Honey, do you want a Harley? We went to visit our friend, JZ Murdock, horror author and all-around nice guy, to take him out for...
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Sergeant Pepper
It’s been an interesting ten days…and while this isn’t strictly “writing-related,” give me a minute and I’ll try to wrap it back around to the topic. During the past week or so, while I was working on...
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Conflicted in Seattle
When it comes to snow, Seattle is conflicted. We love it. We hate it. And tomorrow, we’re gonna get it, or so says Cliff Mass, a scholar of weather in the Pacific Northwest. Snow in Seattle is rare and...
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Jaybirds and Seahawks
Seattle has its idiosyncrasies. It’s what makes this city unique. It’s what gives the city its specific “feel.” In general, we don’t use umbrellas. We’re more a head-down-and-face-the-weather sort of...
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Writing Process Blog Tour – Station Four
Welcome one, welcome all, to the fourth stop on the Writing Process Blog Tour, one of those writerly process-ish bloggy tour-like things that we use as an excuse to talk about our passion: writing. My...
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Vignette 22Oct2014
Autumn’s first storm has hit Seattle, and my commute is packed with sounds not heard since spring. Sheets of rain hiss through parchment leaves. Fat drops splat as they crater sidewalk puddles. Eaves...
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Master Class
My first master class was with Chuck Mangione, jazz composer and flugelhorn player par excellence. He came to my school, sat down with a group of student musicians, and attempted to speak to us about...
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Music for a Bad Week
The week started badly, and ended with a… What? It’s only Thursday? Well, Hell. So, it’s been a trying week, so far. I’ve had injury (wrenched back), illness (rhinovirus), family issues (no comment),...
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Taking a Breath
The weather has turned cold here in Seattle. Nothing like what most of the nation is experiencing, to be sure, but cold nonetheless. The leaves that haven’t fallen are withered and frostbitten on their...
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