The Falcon and the Snowman and me
In 1985, I was a far bigger fan of jazz guitarist Pat Metheny than just about any other musician. The...
ExcerptsA collection of 13 posts
The women who want to drag you down
A previous outtake from my memoir The Accidental Terrorist ended with these lines: Women wield a strange power over the male missionary—even women who don't exist. Perhaps especially women who don't...
Our memories remind us, maybe mine is not so bad
I've always believed that I have a pretty good memory—in particular, that I can recall formative events and conversations from years or even decades ago in reasonably good detail. When I started work...
Le mot juiced
I read the following essay, which appears in somewhat different form in the epilogue to The Accidental Terrorist, in the Essay Fiesta series at The Book Cellar in Chicago, on December 21, 2009. There is no...
Hacking reality
Back in June, during the week I attended the Starry Heaven workshop in Flagstaff, organizer extraordinaire Sarah K. Castle put...
It is not an option, it is your obligation
A nibble comes in, one admiring but not entirely won over, and yet again you find yourself crafting a book proposal to suit a particular audience of one. You like this audience of one, and you...