Approaching the Bonfire
Memoir? autobiography? nonfiction novel? Whatever it should be called, the book explores my transformation from criminal to creative writer. That which made me a criminal later made me a writer, driven by the need to work alone, where plans can change instantly, solutions are provisional, risk vital, and failure devastating.
After novels and stories and plays and poems—decades of this—I chose to use my tools to create myself in a clothing of words. Another way to lie: Look how I’m dressed!
And now, five years of writing, the book is done. Finally I’m visible.
Several pieces from the book have been or will soon be published:
“Freeing Love from Its Box,” Heartland Review, Spring 2027
“Plotless,” Creative Wisconsin Magazine, Fall/Winter 2026
“I Never Told You This,” Indiana Review, Fall 2026
“Love Impossible,” Quillkeepers book, August 2026
“My Islands,” Creative Wisconsin Magazine, Fall/Winter 2025; reprinted in True Stories Well Told, posted January 28, 2026
“The Outlaw He Wanted to Be,” Home Planet News, Issue 21 (2025)
