Apr 232 minMorning wrap-upSaturday 4/23/22 She knew now. She had always known, maybe. What she was going to do. What she had done. Or what she was presently doing....
Apr 233 min"Bobby Orr," short story excerptSaturday 4/23/22 I was a selfish asshole several ways over, and I found myself thinking about that Bobby Orr book I used to read. If we...
Apr 231 minVideo of 33 1/3 Sam Cooke book event Friday 4/22/22 The one hour video of the talk about my 33 1/3 book on Sam Cooke's Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 for the Arlington...
Apr 233 minLafleur and BossyOn the death of two right wingers linked for all-time. Even though I grew up in Boston, and was loyal to my hometown Bruins, there was no...
Apr 2311 minWeekend startSaturday 4/23/22 I'm going to write an introduction for Longer on the Inside: Very Short Fictions of Infinitely Human Lives. You have to...
Apr 216 minDown time workThursday 4/21/22 Tears streaming down my face for the last half hour. Going through "Fitty" again. I had done the first two sections, as...
Apr 205 minGotten afterTuesday 4/19/22 A day to get after things. I'll document what happens as it happens. Fairly late right now--about quarter after six in...
Apr 194 min"The Spot," short story excerptTuesday 4/19/22 Do you ever think there’s a spot in nature that wakes up on a morning and says, “I think I’ll take a human today?” Some...
Apr 193 minA postscript for yesterday's New Yorker entryTuesday 4/19/22 As I was writing that post yesterday, I checked the current short story in The New Yorker, knowing it would be the usual...
Apr 193 min"Letting It Fly," short story excerptTuesday 4/19/22 A man decided he was going to let it fly. “Enough!” of the stage-management of his words, he thought. All of that effort...
Apr 184 minFlights with the C-DawgMonday 4/18/22 Patriots' Day. Easter, of course, was hard. I am alone every day of every year of my life, having no one, but certain days...
Apr 186 minAn example of a short story that is better than any fiction ever published by The New Yorker Monday 4/18/22 It's time to start making a new series in these pages, the title of which you see above. Let's call this the first entry....
Apr 184 minEaster againSunday 4/17/22 Worked on an 1100 word story this morning that I had begun the other day called "The Spot." It's about the unseen,...
Apr 173 minSome sportsSunday 4/17/22 * The most important ability for any athlete is the ability to stay healthy. Everything else is moot without it. It's also...
Apr 178 minHoldSaturday 4/16/22 Not a great performance today. It's hard to do anything when you feel like there's nothing you can do that could change...
Apr 165 minLet's see focusSaturday 4/16/22 Okay, look. I want to see novel work this week. This cluster of new stories finished. The longer story "Complete Set"...
Apr 152 minStarting to erectFriday 4/15/22 I had this editor who was so bad at writing, and he wanted me to review his books. Everything at his literary journal...
Apr 151 minMike BossyFriday 4/15/22 Mike Bossy has died. Growing up, my two sports heroes were Carlton Fisk in baseball and Bossy in hockey. Bossy is first...
Apr 144 minExcerpt from "Fitty," the first story in There Is No Doubt: Storied HumannessThursday 4/14/22 “This part of the feather, where it attaches to the bird’s bone, is called the calamus.” Sometimes Carlene filled in for...
Apr 142 min"Sound Graft," short story excerptThursday 4/14/22 If he’d heard it a million times, he’d heard it once. He worked backwards. Focused on the precision of the moment,...