I’m just back from the Iota Short Prose Conference on Campobello Island, where I was a student rather than a teacher. Mike flew with me and Whitney from O’Hare, rented a car at the Bangor Airport and drove us to our destination: the easternmost point in the United States. We settled right in to our quiet […]

One of my favorite Indie bookstores in Chicago (outside of Sandmeyer’s, right down the street here in Printers Row) is The Book Cellar in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. The Book Cellar is my kind of store. Suzy, the owner, is a caring woman who supports local authors, the thoughtful bookworms Suzy hires are happy to […]

When last Beth posted, we’d just had a lobster roll in Machias, Maine. It only got better. We’re in Lubec, Maine, billed as the easternmost point in the United States. We’re staying at Cohill’s Inn where Glen checks you into your room, mixes your drink, makes your coffee in the morning, and advises on which […]

Hello from our little inn in Lubec, Maine. We won’t be heading across the river to the Iota: The Conference of Short Prose at Roosevelt Campobello International Park until later this morning, but in the short 24 hours we’ve been here I already have a lot to write about. A worker at our gate at […]

Beth and I and Gus had close and deep encounters with the U.S. healthcare machine earlier than most of our contemporaries.  Beth and I were in our 20s when we got a birds-eye view of the Rube Goldberg mess that we call a system. We did get mostly good care most of the time. But the time […]