Uncategorized – The Dilettante's Field Manual

The Long-form Long Tail: 5 Reasons Brands Should Tell Big Stories

Telling big stories is one of the best ways to advance your brand. Here’s why…

Place & Story & COVID

After six months of COVID and social distancing, staring at the same four walls of my newly rearranged and then re-cluttered home office, I’ve learned how lucky I am to live in a place where wilderness is a short drive away. We all need our “panic hole,” as Jim Harrison termed it…a wild space insideContinue reading “Place & Story & COVID”

Three days in Chicago

“Make no little plans,” or so they say. This is your guide to spending three days in Chicago, featuring pizza, blues and architecture.

Totalities

Viewing the eclipse seventy miles off of the Oregon Coast: thoughts on hype, denial, climate change and whatever remaining hope we have to make things right.

Balancing career and calling: insights from three writers

Balancing writing and literary careers can be precarious and challenging. Here three writers give their take on how they wrangle a “bi-vocational” existence.

Sacred places

I return from a trip away to learn about the mass shooting in Roseburg. A classroom full of beautiful people. A writing class, no less. Everyone has their sacred places. Writing classes rank highly among mine.

Making Vino

While we’ve been busy making Vino Veritas, a documentary about the wine biz, I also recently made my first Willamette Valley pinot noir in the garage. Here’s a documentation of the process. Tough weather last year, and it shows, but the wine is soft and drinkable, if a bit bright. I hope the acid willContinue reading “Making Vino”

Wine in Arizona

While down in Phoenix for the in-laws 50th wedding anniversary, I took a side trip down to Arizona wine country in and around Sonoita, gathering footage for our wine documentary project. What I found surprised me. The challenges and risks are there, as they are in any emerging wine region, but not like you’d expect.Continue reading “Wine in Arizona”

Somber sunset

I spent most of Super Bowl Sunday hiking in Finley Natl. Wildlife Refuge, avoiding having to watch the Packers win. The late winter cloud cover can be oppressive in this part of Oregon, but if you get a break in the weather between fronts moving in from the coast, you can witness some beautiful, somberContinue reading “Somber sunset”

So long Sammy, 1994-2010

Sammy was cold when I found her this morning on the couch. There wasn’t shock or surprise…she’d been dying hard for the better part of a week. Mainly there was relief: I was thankful she was no longer suffering; I was grateful I didn’t have to watch her waste away any more; glad that IContinue reading “So long Sammy, 1994-2010”

Valley Film Festival

One of my scripts took “best screenplay” honors at the SF Valley International Film Festival last night. It was a nice cap to my first trip to LA. Writing isn’t exactly lonely work, as much as it is isolating. Even when you’re working in the coffee shops with other presumptuous writers (where I am rightContinue reading “Valley Film Festival”

The Last Ramble of Wolf 18

A century after timberwolves had been officially declared extinct in Missouri, one wolf traveled 460 miles with hopes of recovering this lost frontier. This article originally appeared online in 2002. WHEN WALKING AT NIGHT, I’m tempted to howl. I have a feeling that a wolf might respond. That’s a strange impulse in central Missouri. HowlingContinue reading “The Last Ramble of Wolf 18”