Published Works
September 2022
A bungling gunslinger narrowly escapes two hangings while taking advantage of his lifelong friendship with Dusty.
The Things We're Given, The Grind Stone
June 2022
Even years later Danny doesn’t know why his parents split up. Maybe it was the dog’s fault. Kindle only.
The Music is Secondary, Psalms of the Alien Buddha 2
May 2022
Struggling freelance musician Drew is hired to play for a professional symphony orchestra’s
sports-themed concert. Part of the concert’s shtick is having vendors sell peanuts and popcorn to
audience members prior to the concert, something Drew volunteers to do, and loses track of time.
Heart Decisions, Alien Buddha
March 2022
Living in poverty with his two children and extended family in a rundown camp, Gregory resists an offer from a rich Texan to buy his heart, and resists pressure from his aggressive brother-in-
law to accept the offer. Stand alone novelette.
Classical Music in the Films of Stanley Kubrick, The Notes Will Carry Me Home
November 2021
Non-fiction
Involved, YAWP
July 2021
Young music professor Dr. Tyler Bell struggles to keep his distance from his students’ personal lives as his hapless senior’s broken engagement derails his studies.
The Milkman, Nymphs
June 2022
Shortly after the death of his mother, David’s father, a former musician, reveals his suspicions to
David, now twenty-four, an engineer, and gay, that his former best friend, Jeremy, had actually
fathered David. David seeks Jeremy out, while reflecting
Trumpet Fingerings, Rhodora Magazine
July 2021
A low-level enforcer needs to collect the debt of his childhood best friend, a jazz trumpeter.
May/June 2020
A low-level enforcer needs to collect the debt of his childhood best friend, a jazz trumpeter.
2019
Even years later Danny doesn’t know why his parents split up. Maybe it was the dog’s fault. Kindle only.
Twenty Years of Futility, self-published
Spring 2019
I grew up a Pirates fan in Western, NY, during the Pirates’ twenty years losing streak and a Yankees dynasty. It sucked. Told in twenty (very) short chapters.
October 2017
A labor of love about the spaghetti western genre, Ennio Morricone’s music for those films, and the ways Quentin Tarantino reuses much of that music in his films.
Unearthing, Creativity Webzine
2016
On the day of a local school shooting, Tom digs up a dead body during a landscaping project in his pregnant girlfriend’s backyard.
I love this story, but the layout on this website is dreadful, so I encourage you to click here instead.
2016
Sequel to “I’m Too Good For This”. Drew has put his dreams of becoming an orchestral trombonist on hold when he reluctantly takes a job playing polkas and waltzes at the European-themed amusement park, Seven Gardens. Drew is given one hour to rehearse the chicken dance with their new and unqualified trumpet player, problematic when the trumpet player disappears and no one else in the bands cares. Further complicating matters, Trish is on a quest and is convinced that her husband Travis, the Seven Gardens drummer, is cheating on her with one of the dances, and tries to talk Drew into spying on them for her.
March 2016
This is a great place to showcase a sample of your written work or write a short description about your project. Did you collaborate on a print or multimedia project? If so, dazzle your visitors with images and video. Make sure to include a link to the full live project or document so readers can enjoy the entire piece.
February 2016
Brad is bigger and stronger than Nick, and much more handy with a chainsaw. He’s hiding out in Nick’s living room, along with his nine-month-old daughter, convinced that a hit man is after him following a landscaping accident.
January 2016
Trapped in a tree during the zombie apocalypse with a girl he’s known for only a short time, the narrator recollects the events leading to climbing up the tree, and brainstorms how to get down.
Fall 2015
Creative non-fiction about orchestral auditions, and first chapter in a book of musician stories I’m working on.
June 2015
After the death of his pregnant wife, a series of violent episodes land Jason in an institution. Months later he struggles to prove he is fit to take care of his two-year-old son.
Spiders
April 2015
The story of a spider’s resiliency as it refuses to be whisked off the car windshield despite eighty-miles-per-hour winds, interspersed with autobiographical spider anecdotes.
This was published as part of a to-remain-nameless journal’s debut launch which immediately folded and of which all evidence has disappeared.
Tadpoles, Steam Ticket, Vol. 17
Spring 2014
Two eight-year-old boys build a fort in the woods, dig holes, and concoct a get-rich-quick scheme to sell tadpoles to pet stores.
Print only.
Igor Stravinsky’s In Memoriam Dylan Thomas: A Brief History and Analysis, Journal of the International Trombone Association, vol. 14 no. 2
April 2013
Of interest primarily to trombonists and music theorists, and even then…
Print only.