The October Country
“October Country . . . that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and mid-nights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars,...
Poem: New Year (Rosh Hashanah)
Rosh Hashanah - Oct 2-4, 2024 new year. Ned Hayes Rosh Hashanah comes this year on a day of cool wind, a breathtaking portent of winter taking the world, rude lover tossing the sheets away. in autumn the sadness of all things is greatest for now the world was...
The Hobbit (published 87 years ago today!)
J.R.R. Tolkien published his famous novel The Hobbit on September 21st, 1937. That was 87 years ago today. Tolkien's little story was soon seen as destined for greatness. The book won a prize from the NewYork Herald Tribune and was soon nominated for a Carnegie...
RIP: My friend Steve Silberman
Steve Silberman (1957 - 2024) I'm sad today. I'm sad because I just heard that my friend Steve Silberman is gone. I didn't expect him to die. I don't think anyone expects to die. I especially don't expect my friends to go away at all -- I thought Steve would be here...
Italy – A Summer Reverie
A summer reverie in Italy with my family this August. An amazing trip... and I wrote many long and elaborate journal entries (which no doubt will lead to a novel set in Italy one of these days...). For now, enjoy a few photos from our adventures!
Willow Springs: Short Fiction Prize Winner
I was honored to be asked to be this year's Judge for the Willow Springs Press 2024 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. After reading all the entries with great diligence, I selected Nightwatch by Mathew Goldberg, and in concert with the Willow Springs team, I'm happy to...
Seven Deaths: Memoir In Progress
New Book News! In recent months, I've been writing a memoir... and I've now completed a first draft. Tentatively titled "Seven Deaths," the story interweaves my own near-death experiences over the years with my stumbling, staggering, up-and-down spiritual journey....
Book Review: Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow
First great read of the New Year! This wonderful, amazing, powerful insightful novel tells a story of our generation. I've longed for a novel that is this all-encompassing, this full of heart, and this honest about the current media environment in which we live. I've...
2024: New Year
Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you....
2023: The Reading Challenge
ArtsWatch: Profile of Charles Grant – Director of Christmas Carol
I'm happy to have a new piece in Oregon's ArtsWatch. This "Artist Profile" outlines the history of "Christmas Carol" director Charles Grant. Since arriving in town in 2016, Grant has made his mark in an array of roles on stage and film. Now he's Portland Playhouse's...
The Ghost Stories of Charles Dickens
The holiday season sees a million variations on Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol, yet this marvelous supernatural tale all too often overshadows the ghostly echoes that permeate Dickens’s entire oeuvre. In John Irving’s book of personal essays, Saving...
