Start by showing up… even if only virtually

9 tips for avoiding depression after a lousy breakup…

I joined Facebook in early 2008 but it wasn’t until two years later that I got the idea to creep old friends. It was 2010 and I realized that my graduating class should have had a significant high school reunion the year before...

Part One of Two

I live about 75 miles from Seattle, as the crow flies, or about a three-hour walk. I’m not kidding. I can leave my house, walk about 10 minutes up the street, get on a ferry, and walk off in downtown Seattle less than three hours later...

A bit of fictional non-fiction…

In my next life, I will live above a pub in a village near the sea, in the North East of England. I will speak...

A Drabble

“Bastard,” Emma mutters, closing Instagram and tossing her phone aside. The arrogant prick can’t help but show off...

In which Alexandra Clark goes totally off-book…

Alexandra Clark ran her life in the same regimented way she taught Accounting to her community college students. Even if only in her head...

A little pulp fiction, of the lesbian variety…

Under a glowing sign that reads ‘Arrivals’, the automatic doors slide open with a whoosh. A blast of warm air greets Dana, welcome after the blinding snowstorm she drove through to get here...

As fat flakes of snow fall at an angle, melting before they even reach the ground, I pop into a coffee shop to escape the dreary wet of what passes for a winter’s day. Wet gloves pulled off, a slush-grey puddle forming at my feet...

An out-of-season vignette...

Three brass angels fly in a circle above a red candle, golden light reflected in their wings, their cherub bellies. Each holds a tiny wand that rings a delicate bell as they pass...

I’m waist deep in lake water, casting for trout. The only sounds I hear are the occasional crow’s caw and the ‘zzzzz’ of my reel as the line plays out...

The woman in the blue dress appears to move in slow motion, the crowd blurring around her. Her sensible but still flattering pumps, in a shade that precisely matches that of the dress, follow a straight path across the pavement.

Scratch that.

Ten-year-old Maggie begins an August Monday at five a.m. She wakes with the sun and lies still for a minute, listening intently.

A short, short story.

She’s so tired she can barely stand up, let alone contort her body into Downward Facing Dog.

Downward Facing Dog. Who came up with these names anyway?

Start by showing up… even if only virtually

9 tips for avoiding depression after a lousy breakup…

Sad but true: I’ve written more in the last six weeks than I have in the last six years. Well okay, maybe not technically true...

One thing I learned from 10+ years in the tech industry: it’s not enough to track your metrics, you also have to take the time to analyze them — and adjust accordingly...

I love technology. I’ve worked in the tech industry for well over a decade. But still, there are some days when I can’t even…

I’m feeling particularly curmudgeonly today. After breakfast, I sat down to write and came up with zero. Nada. Zilch. I could think of nothing I wanted to write about.

So my grumpy brain started listing all the things I will never write about. 

I joined Facebook in early 2008 but it wasn’t until two years later that I got the idea to creep old friends. It was 2010 and I realized that my graduating class should have had a significant high school reunion the year before...

The photograph is small, maybe three inches square, with a scalloped white border. It’s black and white but I see my mother’s green armchair, the one that matched the chesterfield...

Brace yourself; this may come as a shock:

Being a mother is not the most important job a woman can do.

In fact, the idea is a crock of shit....

“Excuse me?” The whispered question was faint amid the bustle of a Friday evening sidewalk. Wrapped up in my own impatience to get home, I didn’t realize he was speaking to me.

With a soft snap, 
teeth pierce velvet skin
warm with colour.
Yellow flows into...

Gardens cut back, cleaned up, 
soil black as coffee grounds
awaits the protection of mulch.

A poem for my mother

Salt tang of dough
on my tongue...

Curling into my chest,
she forms a comma
with her body...

A veteran of
backyard black-ops
hovers...

Part Two of Two

Continuing our weekend of day drinking through Seattle, today we’ll wander through some of old Seattle’s historic saloons.

Be sure to scroll all the way down for a bonus — suggestions for a Day Three quickie into Capitol Hill....

Part One of Two

I live about 75 miles from Seattle, as the crow flies, or about a three-hour walk. I’m not kidding. I can leave my house, walk about 10 minutes up the street, get on a ferry, and walk off in downtown Seattle less than three hours later...