Here’s the fourth episode of my latest short story. The first three, in order, were “Different Goals,” “A Taste for Mischief,” and “All Fall Down.” “Just in case you’re interested,” Charles Dough said over pizza at Leo’s New York Style, “this is the first time I’ve ever eaten pot brownies. Christian’s girlfriend went by some …
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All Fall Down
Here’s the third episode in this tale, preceded first by “Different Goals” and then by “A Taste for Mischief.” I hope this gives you some amusement. Jonny McCutcheon at first enjoyed himself immensely when he, Marissa, and Trent made their way up to the Suite Level of Doug Tussle Stadium and proceeded to …
A Taste for Mischief
This is the second episode of a short story. The first was “Different Goals.” I hope you get a few laughs because that’s mainly the intention of this story. When Charles Dough and Christian Beliveau made their way back to their dormitory, named for Jonny McCutcheon’s uncle, it could have passed for summer school. It …
Various Absurdities of the Televised Sporting Life
Between episodes of an irreverent short story, I’ve decided today to write about sports in this space, rationalizing it on the basis that what will be written forthwith is fictitious and exaggerated. ORCHESTRAL INTRO “Live from Grand Canyon Arena in Teaneck, New Jersey, it’s the finals of the Rust Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament, matching …
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Different Goals
This short story is about a cultural conflict at a fictional college on Homecoming. Here’s the first episode. Jonathan Elbert McCutcheon was a direct descendant of the founder of Calliham College, his great-great-great grandfather Estes Calliham, who had also been a lieutenant governor and signed the Articles of Secession that briefly separated the South from …
The Zone of Indifference
His teammates were battling for their lives, and their school, and underdogs everywhere, and Joel Hartzinger was sitting on the bench, doing math. They got seven thousand students. We got just over a thousand if you count the grad school. Twenty five percent of ours play a sport. Most of them don’t win much. …
The Writing Sanctions
I have to protect myself. From myself. The world provides too many things to do. It’s too easy to while away a day dragging a finger across an iPhone screen on a Twitter scroll. It’s too easy to wonder what made that dog seem so happy, or that cheeseburger so succulent, on Facebook. Plus, too …
Drudgery for a While
I’m between stories right now. I just spent a couple weeks or so on a short story, “The Bright Lights Burn,” that wound up being about 16,000 words. It takes up the story of Riley Mansfield, the likable rogue who was the main character in my first novel, The Audacity of Dope, six and a …
The Bright Lights Burn
SEVEN YEARS IF IT’S A DAY The walk down to the mailbox wasn’t far, but it was hilly. The right knee, operated on so long ago, was wearing out again, and there wasn’t a damn thing Riley Mansfield could do about it. He now understood what was meant by the term “trick knee.” One morning, …
Completely Unawares
This is the seventh and final episode of a short story about Riley Mansfield, the hero of my first novel, The Audacity of Dope. This story is set in the present, nearly seven years after the events of the novel. The first six parts were, in order, “Seven Years If It’s a Day,” “Like Old …
Nightrider's Lament 