Boxed In

One of Chicago's great selling points as a "livable" city is its alleys. Unlike New Yorkers, Chicagoans can stash their smelly garbage bins out back and keep them off the sidewalks. If they're lucky enough to have a garage, like we do, they don&

My 2012 World Series Prediction

Some of you know I co-produce and co-host a monthly reading series, Tuesday Funk, at a great little bar here in Chicago. At our October event about three weeks ago, I read my story "The Visitors at Wriggly Field," which was written two years ago in

On the Other Side of the Doorbell

They finally caught up with me. It was bound to happen eventually. It was Sunday evening. My wife and I had only been back home for a couple of hours after a long weekend in New York City. The doorbell rang. We had placed an order for Indian food only

Ella Is Eight

Today the fabulous Ella turns eight. This morning, to celebrate, I took her to the beach for her morning walk. She flung herself off a ledge of sand, and it was so cute that I asked her to climb back to the top and jump off again so I could

The Visitors at Wriggly Field

A Higher Attraction

If we were zombies I promise you that I would love you for your brain

GRRM Too Dense for TSA

Just boarded a Southwest flight from Laguardia to Midway. My carryon bag got pulled out of the X-ray machine at security for extra screening. After swabbing my bag thoroughly and testing the samples, the TSA officer took my paperback copy of A Feast for Crows out of my bag

Lobo Follow-Up

In response to my post yesterday about the stray dog we helped, our neighbor Ann said the following on Facebook: This morning as I was leaving to go up north, I saw Lobo out on a walk. As he passed in front of my car, we made eye contact and

Our Time with the Colonel

On Sunday I was getting over a cold. After our morning walk with Ella, I went to bed to take a nap. I hadn't been down for long, though, when █████ came in and said, "I know you're trying to sleep, but I know you'

Converting All Italics in Your Document to Underlines

A reader writes to ask: I am using 2010 microsoft office for my novel manuscript. I need to change the titles of movies from italics to underlines. Any quick way? It's a bit tricky, but there is a way to convert all the italics in your document to