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 …
A False Sense of Security
This is the sixth episode of this short story about the character, Riley Mansfield, I created for my first novel, The Audacity of Dope. The first five, in order, were "Seven Years If It's a Day," "Like Old Times," "High in La-La Land," "Far, Far Away," and "Melissa, Under Water." Riley Mansfield had no sixth …
Melissa, Under Water
This is the fifth part of a short story which takes up the story of Riley Mansfield, seven years after the events described in my first novel, The Audacity of Dope. In order, the first four episodes are entitled, “Seven Years If It’s a Day,” “Like Old Times,” “High in La-La Land,” and “Far, Far …
Far, Far Away
In response to some small demand, I took up the story of Riley Mansfield, the main character in my first novel, The Audacity of Dope. The first three episodes, in order, were “Seven Years If It’s a Day,” “Like Old Times,” and “High in La-La Land.” This is the fourth episode. Some adjustments had …
High in La-La Land
This short story picks up the story of Riley Mansfield and his wife, the former Melissa Franklin, seven years after the events of my first novel, The Audacity of Dope. This is the third episode. The first two, in order, were “Seven Years If It’s a Day” and “Like Old Times.” The simple arithmetic of …
Nightrider's Lament 