Some days ago I was walking through a gas station parking lot holding a bouquet of roses I’d just bought at Safeway. A couple filling up their car gave me one of those double-take long… Read more

Walking composition and ANNOUNCEMENT “Imagine being a traveller, a conqueror. To simply turn up on soil and stamp it as property.” —Skyward Inn, Aliya Whiteley A largish black bear, around 300 pounds (136 kilograms), has… Read more

Walking composition “God money, let’s go dancing on the backs of the bruised.” —“Head Like a Hole,” Nine Inch Nails Last week I was immersed in beta-reading a friend’s book that will be coming out… Read more

Essay For several years, before and for a while after I had kids, I worked on a mystery novel set in eastern Montana. I wrote sketches and backgrounds for the major and minor characters; mapped… Read more

Walking composition “Hell, my ardent sisters, be assured, Is where we’re bound; we’ll drink the pitch of hell— We, who have sung the praises of the lord With every fiber in us, every cell.” —from… Read more

Walking composition (final free one!) “Going outside is highly overrated.” ―Ready Player One, Ernest Cline Last weekend I was on the edge of the Great Bear Wilderness, close to 290,000 acres (around 1,160 square kilometers)… Read more

Walking composition “This ground seems unsure of itself for its own reasons and we do not gauge enough of our lives by changes in temperature.” — from “Another Attempt at Rescue,” M.L. Smoker Last week… Read more

Walking composition Just over a minute of birdsong at American Prairie (which recently changed its name from the American Prairie Reserve), including the western meadowlark, one of the loveliest birds I ever hear. This audio… Read more

Walking composition with audio I’m experimenting with the audio feature that Substack now offers. It’s called “podcast” but I’m not going to do a podcast. This is a 43-second recording of dawn birdsong from our… Read more

Essay? Kind of. As promised, following is the full Overview section from my book proposal for No Trespassing: How the Ancient Struggle for Ownership, Private Property, and the Rights of the Commons Will Define Our… Read more