Occasional Writing: Columns, Guest Editorials, Rants

I'll be conducting a workshop on three consecutive Saturdays in April focused entirely on peer critiquing of ideas and texts. It will be at my absolute favorite of the venues I've taught it in over the years, the comfortable art studio at the Brazosport Center for the Arts and Science in Clute. On April 5, … Continue reading Writing workshop on the horizon

My column in the November 2024 issue of BrazosMonthly  magazine                  ‘When you learn, teach. When you get, give’ - Maya Angelou My wife Karen, who is a good dancer, has been unsuccessful so far in teaching me, a very bad dancer, to dance.  She is persistent, and patient, and an excellent teacher.  I am … Continue reading Life Learners

My October column in BrazosMonthly magazine C. S. Lewis, the iconic British scholar and author of The Narnia Chronicles (the much loved fantasy classic written for children and the rest of us) and well-known nonfiction books like Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters, once said “I will not be at the mercy of the telephone.” … Continue reading Oh, Mercy

Published in the September 2024 Brazos Monthly magazine Back in my wandering days I ventured pretty often into bookstores. A couple of my favorites were Book People in Austin and The Twig in San Antonio. Closer to home I still sometimes visit Murder by the Book, on Bissonnet Street in Houston, which regularly fuels my … Continue reading The Magic Shop     

This is my August offering for Brazos Monthly magazine We weren’t as debonaire or as suave as the three musketeers, nor anywhere near as learned and devout as the three wise men.  Sometimes, after a few beers, we were probably more like the Three Stooges. We came closest to being the three amigos. During all … Continue reading Three was never a crowd

(This is my most recent monthly article in Brazos Monthly magazine) Sometime or another I watched a man ruin his outfit by not paying attention to a Wet Paint sign when he sat on a bench to light a cigarette (he obviously hadn’t paid attention to the Surgeon General’s warning about cancer either). I bet … Continue reading Duly Warned

(Here's my latest monthly column in Brazos Monthly magazine) A row of cloth-covered journals, in various colors, stretches out for almost two linear feet on a book shelf in my study. There are twenty-nine of them, in chronological order covering forty-three years, with brief daily entries beginning on Saturday, September 5th,1981 and continuing uninterrupted to … Continue reading Writing It Down 

First published on  Sunday, May 1st, 2011   in The Brazosport Facts Happy May Day. And if you’re wondering what we’re supposed to be celebrating on this first day of the fifth month the line forms here, right behind me.             Back when I was a gangly, crew-cut lad full of questions up in Oakwood I’m … Continue reading Missiles, Mishaps, Maypoles, and a good bit of confusion

(Published in the April 2024 issue of Brazos Monthly magazine) Some old pundit or poet once said that the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. I don’t remember exactly what the weather was like on the first three days of the most recent March, but I can … Continue reading The Right Medicine

(From in the March 2024 issue of Brazos Monthly magazine, a publication of the Brazosport Facts) In the late summer of 1974 the Astros were plodding through a season where they would lose exactly as many games as they won, President Nixon was on the brink of losing his job, and I was a losing … Continue reading Lessons to Die For