“When I think about Lesbos today, I think about the little mirages you see on the desert highways, the illusion of puddles blinking in your vision, vaporizing as soon as you reach them. As you soon as you get close, they vanish.”
– Someone will remember us
Someone will remember us: a novella
When we meet seasoned reporter Zachary Ryder, he’s on assignment in the island of Lesbos, covering the migration crisis afflicting Greece. Recovering from a brutal ordeal in which he was captured and tortured by Islamic extremists hiding out in the rural American West, Ryder thinks the Greek sojourn will be a respite of sorts, a cold examination of an international tragedy that he can have no real impact in addressing. But that all changes when he witnesses an Afghan woman nearly drown looking for her son, who has seemingly vanished into thin air. Springing into action, Ryder vows to find out what happened to the missing boy, leading him on an investigation into the seamy heart of darkness in the Greek migration system. He’s guided by the drunken, failed Greek journalist Nikos, but he’s more intrigued by the assistance of Nikos’ alluring sister Angeliki, an activist who has made it her life’s purpose helping the new arrivals. Energized, Ryder hopes his quest will reunite a family splintered by war and exile. But as the dark seeds of conflict cloud over the island, and Ryder is pursued by a member of the Greek intelligence services, he becomes increasingly desperate—will his effort be too little, too late?
Forthcoming from Running Wild Press Novella Anthology, 2026.
“IN THE TWILIGHT OF MY TWENTIES I BOARDED A SOUTHWEST 737 TO SAN DIEGO. THAT TRIP, I WASN’T JUST TRYING TO SOLVE A MILITARY CONSPIRACY, BUT REKINDLE A RELATIONSHIP, RECOVER INNER TRUTHS I’D LOST, SECRETS I’D BURIED SO DEEP THEY MIGHT NEVER COME OUT. IT WAS PROBABLY TOO AMBITIOUS FOR LABOR DAY WEEKEND.”
– The Peacock
THE PEACOCK
When Mark Munro, podcast producer for “Detective Radio,” reports on a story in his hometown of San Diego, he’ll uncover a conspiracy with global implications—and confront the grief that has held him back all his life.
Published Spring 2024 in Inkfish Magazine.
Previously published in 2020 as a podcast episode in PenDust Radio.
“though i was visiting famagusta on business, my agenda was personal. the island of cyprus may be known for its ‘problem,’ but i had a problem with my mother-in-law.”
-silent g
SILENT G
An American widower travels to an abandoned city in divided Cyprus to locate the lost home of his difficult Cypriot mother-in-law, and to answer the question—to what extent has her nostalgia clouded the past, and distracted her from her dying daughter?
Published in Trio (Phaneromenis70, 2022) in English and in Greek translation.
Signed copies available for purchase in The Usonian Store.
“My architecture is not for fashions of the moment, Mr. Zeliger,” The Architect declared. “It is to stand for all time. This new architecture, these barren slabs and steel beams, they are not designed with man and his humanity in mind.”
– falling
FALLING
When Edward Zeliger, Sr., the president of a department store empire, hires a legendary but down-on-his-luck architect to build his country house, he has little idea of the impact the house will have on his family. Or his troubled son, for that matter.
Published in Tales from the Deep (Flying Ketchup Press, 2022).
Nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Signed copies available for purchase in The Usonian Store.
“do you ever smile so much your face hurts?”
– the architects
THE ARCHITECTS
When Patrick and Elin, an architect couple, travel to remote China to assess the viability of a so-called “ghost city,” Elin begins to have a nervous breakdown amidst an alienating context.
Published in US-1, Summer 2015.