Virtute et Labore

(the seventh chapter of Shell Games)   The new vagabond’s mind rippled outward like a vast, quickly growing web of consciousness catching flies of transcendence, as she flitted in the direction of Albany.  Molly Connors was a living, breathing paradox, she realized: alone yet with all things.  Another earlier paradox had zapped into her brain…

Tisk

  Don’t go looking for Tanokwans today, though.  There’s only one left in the year 2016, and he’s out in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, holed up on the second floor of a Howard Johnson.  There each day is spent, reading and critiquing every word Henry James ever wrote—even a pile of the author’s yellowed, crumpled notes…

Off on the New York Waltz

(the sixth chapter of Shell Games) No one noticed Molly Connors was gone for twelve hours.   Her mother came to the realization of her daughter’s disappearance only when the evening meal was taking longer than usual. “Is there twice as much food tonight, or just half as much me?”  had been her first thought, drawing…

The Lucky and the Sublime

(the fifth chapter of Shell Games)   The great town seal of Blandis depicts a man on his knees, his hands raised joyously toward a mountain with the sun’s rays shining from behind the tall peak.  The year this occurred, 1734, is emblazoned at the bottom.  All in all, it’s a very impressive work of…

A Great Mystery

(the fourth chapter of Shell Games)   The Rev. Walpole Albright had suggested the universe wished to snuff out dozens, hundreds, or even more of its own creations.  Most of the universe’s creations who heard this dire pronouncement met it with a shrug. Yet the promise of eminent destruction lingered with a few of the…

Bedeviled by “Devil”

written August 6, 2011   What are we to do with something like Devil in the White City?  It’s won an award for Best Fact Crime, and labeled as History, but reads with enough dramatic, pulpy push that it could be taken to the beach.  It’s this tension between professional and lay you put your…