From CONFLAGRATION

Saint Orres doesn’t loom or hunker. It regards. Highway One, the Pacific Ocean, cars wending their way along the rise, brush tattooing the slope on which it sits. In California, brush is a fuck-you to the environment, a fount of fire. Yet you see it everywhere. Such is the arrogance of this state.

The most personal listing copy

I've been a real-estate writer throughout my career, but writing my mother's copy was something else.

Yup!

I'm 50 today. Yay me!

Posted this on FB eons ago

Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere. - Barack Obama

Truth

You know how you always think you're so fat, then you see pics of yourself that show you you're not so bad? It's like that. 

Authors Answer blog

It's here! 

From Conflagration

Vegas

It was fun. It was tiring. It was a LOT of family time. I'm glad we did it, but I'm also glad we came back.

Dinnertime

 

From CONFLAGRATION

So much of parenthood is just looking. We watch our creations do what our creations will do. Our little Frankensteins, our babies. Arise, my creation. Live. I watched his chest rise and fall as I had done so many nights before when he was younger, particularly when he was just a newborn. You run the risk of losing them then. It gets a little less dicey as they get older, but then again, does it?

Does it?

2018

 

That's right

 

I miss you so much, baby

 

Running today

And the Editor's Pick.

I played this for my dying mother

Well life on the farm is kinda laid back
Ain't much an old country boy like me can't hack
It's early to rise, early in the sack
I thank God I'm a country boy

Well a simple kinda life never did me no harm
A raisin' me a family and workin' on the farm
My days are all filled with an easy country charm
Thank God I'm a country boy

Well I got me a fine wife I got me an ol' fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
And life ain't nothin' but a funny funny riddle
Thank God I'm a country boy

When the work's all done and the sun's settlin' low
I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow
The kids are asleep so I keep it kinda low
Thank God I'm a country boy

I'd play Sally Goodin all day if I could
But the Lord and my wife wouldn't take it very good
So I fiddle when I can and I work when I should
Thank God I'm a country boy

Well I got me a fine wife I got me an ol' fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
Life ain't nothin' but a funny funny riddle
Thank God I'm a country boy, woo

Well I wouldn't trade my life for diamonds or jewels
I never was one of them money hungry fools
I'd rather have my fiddle and my farmin' tools
Thank God I'm a country boy

Yeah, city folk drivin' in a black limousine
A lotta sad people thinkin' that's a mighty keen
Well, son, let me tell ya now exactly what I mean
I thank God I'm a country boy

Well I got me a fine wife I got me an ol' fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
And life ain't nothin' but a funny funny riddle
Thank God I'm a country boy

Well, my fiddle was my daddy's 'til the day he died
And he took me by the hand, held me close to his side
Said, "live a good life, play my fiddle with pride
And thank God you're a country boy"

Well, my daddy taught me young how to hunt and how to whittle
Taught me how to work to play a tune on the fiddle
He taught me how to love and how to give just a little
And thank God I'm a country boy

Well I got me a fine wife I got me an ol' fiddle
When the sun's comin' up I got cakes on the griddle
Life ain't nothin' but a funny funny riddle
Woo, thank God I'm a country boy, yes

Nope, thanks for asking

My in-laws didn't contact me when my book was published. Or when my mother died. Or when my dog died. The last time I saw my mother-in-law, Adam had to ask her to say something. And what did she say? "Was it weird being in San Diego without your mom?" Why, no, Anita. It felt great.

If you knew I was going through shit and you just sat by and did nothing, then you're an asshole too and I have nothing to say to you either. 

Round House Cafe

 

Interview with Bold Journey

It's here!

Tracy Chapman at the Grammies

Beautiful.

Queensryche, "Silent Lucidity"

Hush now, don't you cry

Wipe away the teardrop from your eye
You're lying safe in bed
It was all a bad dream spinning in your head

Your mind tricked you to feel the pain
Of someone close to you leaving the game of life
So here it is, another chance
Wide awake you face the day, your dream is over
Or has it just begun?

There's a place I like to hide
A doorway that I run through in the night
Relax child, you were there
But only didn't realize and you were scared

It's a place where you will learn
To face your fears, retrace the years
And ride the whims of your mind
Commanding in another world
Suddenly you hear and see this magic new dimension

will be watching over you
(I) am gonna help you see it through
(I) will protect you in the night
(I) am smiling next to you, in silent lucidity

I can't do this
Visualize your dream, record it in the present tense
Put it into a permanent form
If you persist in your efforts, you can achieve dream control
How's that then, better?
Dream control, dream control
Help me

If you open your mind for me
You won't rely on open eyes to see
The walls you built within
Come tumbling down, and a new world will begin

Living twice at once, you learn
You're safe from the pain in the dream domain
A soul set free to fly
A round trip journey in your head
Master of illusion, can you realize
Your dream's alive, you can be the guide but

will be watching over you
(I) am gonna help you see it through
(I) will protect you in the night
(I) I'm smiling next to you

From CONFLAGRATION

There’s that old resentment. I don’t know if I feel chained in marriage or around Ross in particular, but sometimes I feel as though he has his claws in me and I can’t escape. It’s weird – he’s such an easygoing person on the surface, but can be so intense at heart. Maybe it’s me that’s intense – intense in the sense of not wanting to be tied down. Maybe that’s not what I ever wanted.

What would have happened if I’d never gotten married?

2016

 

Noe Valley

 

San Diego

My brother and I were going through my mom's stuff. We came upon her purse. Her wallet, her perfume, vaccine literature that was probably never read and now never would be. "This is the tough part," he said. He was right.

2020

 

The first kiss

Man, we made out so hard it hurt. If I didn't know I would marry him then, I should have. 

Monterey