Nickel Men — A Gambling Story

Image of playing cards and chips by Image by gnokii (Open Clipart) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

The celebrants are a young, attractive couple. They stand at the center spot of the blackjack table as if they stopped momentarily. He’s tall, wearing a tux, and has impeccable hair. She’s shorter, thin, and in a dressy black number with spangles. Like Hoffman says in Rain Man, she looks like a holiday. Continue Reading →

Inside the Tower: Robinson Jeffers’ Tor House

Photo of Robinson Jeffers, 1937 By Carl Van Vechten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

“A chill rippled across my skin as I realized that we were standing in that very room and the bed before me was the subject of the poem — the death-bed in ‘The Bed by the Window.’ Robinson Jeffers had written the poem as a young man shortly after building the house. Many years later, he had indeed died in the room, thereby fulfilling its destiny.” Continue Reading →

Bronze Prize — 2014 Solas Awards

Hawk Tower at Tor House in Carmel

Travelers’ Tales, publishers of the Best Travel Writing anthology series, just announced the winners of their Eighth Annual Solas Awards for best travel writing of the year. My travel memoir “Inside the Tower” was awarded Bronze Prize. “Inside the Tower” is a story of discovery, one that begins in a bookshop, browsing a poetry anthology, and ends as a quest to understand the late poet during a visit to his home in Carmel. The story has been published on the Best Travel Writing website and may be included in one of the yearly travel anthologies.