Myopedia is my first collection of short stories, provided here for your enjoyment. Well, most of them…

Actually, we have no idea what it’s really called. Mrs. Simonson calls it an “Avbytare,” which she pronounces “Ahv-BIT-uh-ray,” which she says is Swedish...and since it’s living in the craft room of her basement, it’s hers to name, and since she’s Swedish, I guess she’d know.

It was not the way Dan expected to spend lunch, as the victim of a kidnapping.

There were lost boys and golden girls streaming up and down the boulevard; parading for each other and also for the lines of platinum cruisers going back and forth on the street…

For years now, I have gone out driving late at night, about once a week. The excuse I use is to clear my head and be alone with my own thoughts, but as much as anything, it’s to escape the numbing sameness of the suburban life I live. I tend to drive through areas which have street life after dark, which means areas wiser people avoid at night; South Central LA, Hollywood, Silverlake, Westlake, Little Armenia, Willowbrook, Koreatown, Skid Row.

When he was seven, his parents had given him an electric train for Christmas. It was long after electric trains were the thing you wanted for Christmas; he was a child in an age when children wanted game platforms and laptops. But he longed for an electric train; it made him think of places far away, places other-than…places where-maybe-when…

It was my son who saw Them. Of course. It was his turn.

Her butt was aching from being slammed down onto the hardwood floor.

I need to say right up front, I didn’t plan to kill her. Swear to God.

The world ended on a Friday. Well, that’s not exactly true. It started to end on a Friday. It took a couple of weeks to finish ending.

Paul sat down to write, late on Christmas Eve. It didn’t go well.

If you lived through the 1980’s, especially in southern California, this is for you. If not, then I hope enough things connect for it to be enjoyable.

I remember being in the back of the stationwagon...unseatbelted, unseated, unafraid. Through those big windows, the city of Los Angeles floated around me, above me…

Pay attention to the people in your life, even the ones that seem happy...