Spine of Purely Lit Fiction and Poetry Anthology paperback book

The Year Is Nearly Over And I’m Just Getting Started

topdogUnpopular Opinions 4 Comments

It’s almost 2023 and I’m still alive. Not that I was in any serious danger of dying in 2022, but at sixty years, one does start to count each stair step when coming down for one’s Lucky Charms®.  Maybe it’s time to install a handrail. As a rule, I don’t much care for those “Year In Retrospect” stories that get written this time of year. I’m mostly a Looking Forward kind of fellow, except when …

Hobee feature image

Hobee

topdogPet Portraits Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I posted a portrait (or anything else). I’ve got quite the backlog of portraits to show. Let’s start with one of my favorites. This is Hobee. Not much to say about this happy fella, except that I really like the way the bright blue background sets off the orangey tone of his head. I added some electric orange tones on his cheeks that create a nice glowing effect, making the …

I Never Knew I Could Run So Fast In My Underwear

topdogRural Living 11 Comments

About 1:30 in the morning I’m awakened to the sound of big floppy ears swatting the side of my dog’s head. Even asleep, my ears are finely tuned to certain sounds, like gunshots, thunder, puking dogs, Salma Hayek’s sultry voice (never happened, but I’m ready if it does) and, in this case, Hudson’s shaking head. It’s HudsonSpeak for “Take me out to pee, Hooman.” Being well into my sixty-first year, and possessing a prostate of …