The Innocent
A shrink once told me there's no such thing as an innocent. We're all guilty of some deviance at some level. I like stories where a seeming innocent is put into a situation where his/her naiveté is put...
View ArticleEvil at Heart
Chelsea Cain's third installment in the twisted saga of knock-out serial killer Gretchen Lowell and Portland detective Archie Sheridan delivers the same breathless pace, originality, and sharp wit that...
View ArticleIntensity
Koontz has a real knack for getting you hooked, then throwing a curveball of a twist that keeps you turning those pages until you read the last sentence. Intensity saw two film adaptations, one a...
View ArticleHello, I Must Be Going
There's a bench in Cully, Switzerland. It's in a little park tucked up against the shore of Lake Geneva. I go there a lot to just sit and think, or not think. I've been doing it for 13 years. I'm...
View ArticleFoggy Fish
Sometimes you can sit next to the lake and see the strangest things. Actually, it's what you can't see. Sometimes fog swallows the entire lake and the mountains on the far shore and all the sky....
View ArticleThe Horror, the Horror
There are certain places that feel charged. Visiting them gives me an electrical surge, as if I have plugged in to some current. The headwaters of the Metolius River are like that. So is Short Sands...
View ArticleThe Desk
I had been teaching at the Nebraska Writers Conference all week, and on my way back to Ames, Iowa (where I lived and worked at the time), my buddy (and former colleague) Dean Bakopoulos called, said he...
View ArticleThe Dungeon
Every day after I brew my coffee, pack lunches, and send my kids off to school, I say to my wife, "I'm headed down to the dungeon." Later, I might sneak upstairs for more coffee, some toast slathered...
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