Stories & Essays
I enjoy writing many different things: screenplays, teleplays, book reviews, introductions to books by other authors, and even liner notes for CDs. Short stories and essays about popular culture are two kinds of writing that I particularly enjoy. On this page, you’ll find examples of my stories and essays.
STORIES
Over the years, I wrote almost 70 short stories for magazines and Year’s Best anthologies. Some are in my collections, Black Evening and Nightscape. Others are now being re-released as individual stories, with introductions. (Available as e-shorts and in my third story collection, Before I Wake.)
Click on any cover to learn more.
ESSAYS
A student of popular culture, I've written numerous in-depth essays for film magazines, analyzing the careers of popular icons, such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe. These have been re-released as individual essays, along with a detailed discussion of Rambo’s origins (available as e-shorts and included in my collection, Stars in My Eyes: My Love Affair with Books, Movies, and Music, which has numerous other essays about cultural icons such as Ernest Hemingway, John D. MacDonald, Alfred Hitchcock, Rod Serling, and Steve McQueen).
Click on any cover to learn more.
PHOTO ESSAYS
Here are photo essays about some of the fascinating Victorian locations in Ruler of the Night and Inspector of the Night.
Jay's Mourning Warehouse
Magnificent Euston Station
Illustrious Dove Cottage
Eerie Lord Palmerston's House
Magnificent Crystal Palace
The Killing Ground of Constitution Hill
Wealthy Mayfair and Belgravia
Malvern's Bizarre Water Cure Clinic
Wyld's Monster Globe