Desperate Bulgaria: Gleanings from Miroslav Penkov’s East of the West
Recently I read East of the West: A Country in Stories by Miroslav Penkhov. The book is a collection of short stories by a Bulgarian writer now living in the U.S., and all of the stories deal with Bulgaria and its people. Penkov’s English prose is more precise...Going Global–in a Quechua Village Outside Abancay, Peru
Rory and I recently spent a week and a half in the Andes of Peru with our middle son and his wife. Brendan and Erin live as missionaries in Abancay, a small city in the province of Apurimac. This is one of the poorest regions of Peru, and it’s a stunningly beautiful...An Act of the Soul: Thoughts after attending The Glen Workshop
This blog post is sympathetically dedicated to all artists, especially writers, who have ever wondered if they are wasting their time. I spent June 12-18 at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA, attending an arts gathering called The Glen Workshop, a yearly event...The Face of Ordinary Evil: Thoughts on Bela Zsolt’s Nine Suitcases
There are certain faces that we think of as representing great, powerful evil: Hitler, Stalin, and bin Laden to name a famous few. But the big names, the ones in the famous photos, have their ugly little brothers, too. (And sisters, I should add.) These lesser ones...
Welcome!
I am a writer who loves good music and good stories. It’s been my privilege to combine these loves by writing fiction that honors the creation of beauty, even in the bleakest of circumstances, through the creation of music. Writing has also led me to a deep interest in the recent history of central and eastern Europe.
Come and explore with me!