Oeuvre Groove

Here I was aiming for a degree of gravitas while trying to ensure that I appear to have the most possible hair that circumstances permit, and at the same time suggesting a certain spiritual quality, a ready sense of humor, a je ne sais quoi. Whatever. I am older than this now. You'll find on the links below longer and shorter works that I have written and published, self-published, or not published in any space other than here. Yes, you can make me generous offers to purchase the rights to any of the works here which are not published elsewhere.

Short Stories

The Last Summer of Viola Stone Desire breaks out against all the rules while a young girl looks on and tries to make sense of it all. This story is set in a small mountain town in the mid 20th century. Autobiographical elements, yeah. Story-a-clef, no.

Joseph's Father's Caves A visit to a remote village whose inhabitants are purported to be saints proves that human nature is the same just about everywhere. Set in Morocco, this story is part of the collection called Morocco Pentagraph (see below).

Among the Mourners the strangest sorts show up at funerals. This story was largely inspired by the experience of attending my father's funeral in 1998.

Touristic Attractions Guys just want to have fun.

Reunion As high school reunions go, this one was way better than most.

Nonfiction

Being From Creede I grew up in Creede, Colorado. Creede Magazine published my essay about that experience in their Fall 2008 issue. I've added a couple of pictures to this that didn't appear in the magazine.

Maid in Morocco This essay won the 2007 Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award for the best short description of the Peace Corps experience. It was written when I learned of the death of Fatima Meskina, a woman in Morocco who had made a career out of being a maid to Peace Corps volunteers.

Neighbors This is another episode from my Peace Corps experience, inspired by a chance encounter with my neighbor. It was published by the Peace Corps in an anthology of similar pieces from volunteers around the world.

Pianos This long essay, available on Kindle, is about my lifelong relationship with pianos. Not for the faint of heart; mainly of interest to others who play.

New Kids in Town I was lucky to be living in Creede when the now-famous Creede Repertory Theatre was just starting. I wrote this essay for their 2015 commemorative book about the founding and first year of the theater.

All About My Mother is an essay I wrote in honor of my mother Barbara Magness, a year after she died in 2017.

I spent 30 years living intensely in one religious community before defecting to another one. This post on Medium.com distills much of what I learned from that experience.

Longer Fiction

The Old Windrow Place This link is to the Kindle (and presently, the only published) edition of this novel, which draws quite a lot on my experience of living as a caretaker at a Buddhist retreat center in the 1990s.

Morocco Pentagraph This link is to the Kindle (and presently, the only published) edition of this collection of fiction and memoir, all of which were inspired by the years I lived in Morocco in the 1980s.