Stories of Suspense with a Sense of Humor
Back in 1988, trying to figure out how to learn to be a writer, I signed up for a summer workshop at The University of Iowa. That’s the same place where one of the most famous writing workshops, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, happens, but this was not the same thing. This was on the same … Read more
I went to The Blind Pig this weekend to hear a band. Unexpectedly, I had to confront two of my greatest fears. The Blind Pig, if I haven’t mentioned it before, is a smallish bar on the northeast edge of downtown Ann Arbor. There’s a raised platform at one end used as a stage, a … Read more
Here is a short, true story: I am four years old and just finished washing myself in the bathtub like a big boy. I watch the whirlpool at the drain and, when it’s all gone, I step out of the tub dripping wet and towel myself dry. Mom has left clean jockey shorts for me. … Read more
Fulton Avenue in Cleveland runs along the top of the hill overlooking the valley carved by Old Man Creek. There’s a fence in the brush at the top of that hill, and my father found a hole in that fence. I don’t remember how he found it, or if he heard about it from some … Read more
Broken systems have been on my mind of late—transportation, public health, safety—which reminded me of my father and his system for cars. He had a penchant for cheap, used cars. His favorites were both cheap and used. His heyday for crappy cars were the 1960s through the 1980s, a period when even new cars were … Read more