Porcupines Off the Coast…

Michael near Bar Harbor, Maine

Newsletter 021 – August 26th, 2022 Hi, About the image above: The prominent island to the right of the tree in the center is Bald Porcupine Island, off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine. A little farther in the distance are some other islands with spiny names (Sheep Porcupine, Burnt Porcupine, and Long Porcupine Islands). …

Read more

Willingly Retreating…

Newsletter 020 – August 12th, 2022 Hi, About the image above: I attended a writing retreat in the summer of 2015, held by the Writers’ League of Texas (WLT) on Sul Ross University’s campus in Alpine, Texas. My home in Spring (a northern suburb of Houston), is almost 600 miles away from Alpine. About 200 …

Read more

A High Tide Lifts All…

Newsletter 019 – July 22nd, 2022 Hi, About the image above: This was taken on Galveston Island on January 4, 2014. I was there for a writing retreat. I’ve been to several different types of writing retreats since then (I’ll tell you about a couple of the others in the next two newsletters), but this …

Read more

Deep in the Heart of…

Newsletter 012 – April 8th, 2022 Hi, [name] About the image above: In the center you can see a few wind turbines. Texas has over 150 wind farms, and produces more wind power than any other US state. If Texas was a country, it would be the fifth largest wind energy producer in the world. …

Read more

A Day in the Life…

Newsletter 009 – February 25th, 2022 Hi, About the image above: Late in the afternoon on May 15th, 2010, Minay and I arrived in the town of Little Sutton, about five miles across the River Mersey from the Beatles’ original stomping grounds. I desperately wanted to go over and wander along Penny Lane and see …

Read more

You’d Cry Too, If It…

Newsletter 007, January 28, 2022 Hi — About the image above: I took this picture of the Lincoln Memorial on my third visit to Washington, DC. It’s one of the images I used in a short video I created called Lincoln’s Tears. A link to the video is included at the end of the newsletter. …

Read more

Brr, Shiver, Brr…

Newsletter 005, December 24, 2021 Hi — (About the image above) I took this picture while Minay and I were walking through my mom’s neighborhood on Martha’s Vineyard in late-December 2000. She and her husband, Bill Sen, had moved there a few years before. We normally visited her there in the summer, so this let …

Read more

Oh, No! Not Research…

Newsletter 004 – December 10, 2021 Hi — (About the image above) This was taken inside the Grove Arcade in Asheville, North Carolina. It was the first indoor shopping mall built in the city, in 1929. It has been thoroughly remodeled and modernized. Minay and I were in the city to visit my friend, Jerry …

Read more

I Can See for Miles and Miles…

Grand Canyon, AZ, 2003

Newsletter 003, November 26, 2021 Hi — (About the image** above) By the beginning of November 2003 I had already written a scene involving a character named Billie Crowder. The scene was set in a courtroom, but not in any particular time or place.  In the middle of the month I traveled to Arizona to …

Read more

So Excited I Teared Up…

Newsletter 002, November 12, 2021 Hi — (About the image above) I love music, and growing up in the 1960’s the Beatles were a favorite of mine (they still are). When my wife and I went on a vacation to the UK in 2010, I naturally had to go to Abbey Road, walk the crosswalk …

Read more