More And More Unto The Perfect Day: A Book Review At Chanticleer
L Wilson Hunt, of Chanticleer Book Reviews, wrote a flattering and insightful piece on my novel More and More unto the Perfect Day. That review reads, in part: Bizarre things are beginning to happen to...
View ArticleMisdirection And Surprise
Seven o’clock in the evening. A hot and moth-populated mountain night. Gasteneau sat alone in a rundown motel on the outskirts of town, a cheap room that he’d rented for this reason, because it was...
View ArticlePutting The Cock Back In Cocktail (The Lost Footage)
Bartending for blood? Or putting the cock back in cocktail? You decide. The following footage (which is glitchy in spots) was sent to me by a thirsty artist: It’s always a little unnerving to see...
View ArticleForever Yours
He trudged into the desert, taking almost nothing with him but water and a ghost- ly old photo of a lady beside the ocean. That first night, he lay above a dry creek bed. Below, he heard vipers moving...
View ArticleHaters And Their Mail
A reader writes: Dear Sir: We read your book for book-club and I found it boring and reprehensible by turns. Between your endless descriptions and your philosophizing, I caught myself wondering, who...
View ArticleTwenty Questions
The following was composed by an astute reader: 1. Does it seem as if Joel is living entirely in a world of his own devising? Or does the external persistently intrude? 2. What is the primary...
View ArticleBoy At A Bridge: Spring And Fall
Spring Watching the wind unwind off the river’s face Creates in him a feeling he can’t quite name. Intently he stared into a corrugated Pool of jade, hearing (but not) its musical Slop and heave, the...
View ArticleTell Don’t Show — In Which We Endeavor To Demonstrate That Narration Has Its...
He was the only child of middle-aged parents, a miner-turned-truck-driver named Neil and Neil’s wife Angela, a half Cherokee lady of rare beauty whom Joel loved with all his heart. He grew up silent, a...
View ArticleAutumn
Summer dies, the long days wane away. The heat in the sky melts like lead to liquid pools. The hills beyond are as white as clay. Now creep in the gentle autumn ghouls, Trailing behind their silken...
View ArticlePutting the Cock Back in Cocktail (Part 4): Whiskey
Whiskey — or whisky, if you prefer — is a distilled spirit that’s usually made from corn, rye, barley, wheat, or, very often, a cross combination of some or all those. Whiskey is almost always aged in...
View ArticleUpdate On Pale Criminal: Over 6,000 Downloads In Five Days
For all who have been kind enough to ask about Pale Criminal, the first phase of my book re-release — via Kindle Direct Publishing (i.e. KDP Select) — is over, and I’m happy to report that it was more...
View ArticleHow to Make the Perfect Gin Martini
The Perfect Gin Martini: This is Part 8 in our Putting-the-Cock-Back-in-Cocktail series: Don’t forget to watch the Carpet-Licker and the Cosmo. And Getting Numb with Rum.
View ArticlePutting the Cock Back in Cocktail — the Old-Fashioned Way
Is there any cocktail that gets people as lathered up about technique as the Old-Fashioned? If there is, I don’t know about it. Come and have a drink with the unwashed.
View ArticlePutting the Cock Back in Cocktail: Sazeracs & Manhattans
A reader writes: In your last video (which I enjoyed somewhat) you said the Old-Fashioned isn’t the oldest cocktail on written record, and you are correct. The Sazerac is. When will you do a vid...
View ArticleWodka!
This article first appeared, in slightly altered form, in the Coloradoan newspaper. The Polish call it wodka. The Russians call it vodka. The word itself comes from the slavic voda — meaning “little...
View ArticleThe Book of Dog: One of Us?
If Dog had a name, what would it be? Brought to you by the College of Subversive Knowledge. Subscribe!
View ArticlePutting the Cock Back in Cocktail: I Wish You Love
In bartending, as in life, the fundamental things apply. And time goes by. Thank you for watching.
View ArticleGap-Toothed Girl
Chapter 1 Tournament night in a sweltering Las Vegas stadium, and the girl with the gap-toothed smile stood bleeding in her ballet slippers. The sodium lights of the arena lay upcast on the...
View ArticleWhiskey Wisdom and the Secret Key to the Lock of Life
For you, the secret of life was never a secret, quite, because for you it always seemed natural — not necessarily easy, of course, but obvious, and obviously right. It never mystified you, perhaps...
View ArticleWhiskey Wisdom: 5 Bullshit Notions That Will Suffocate Your Wild Potential...
Answer this honestly: How often do you undermine yourself? Answer quickly: How guilty are you of self-sabotage? If you’re anything like most, the answer is approximately “a lot.” The following are...
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