The God of Mischief Got Stuck on My Roof, So I've Started a Religion

I hope your night went better than mine. I was almost asleep, when Andrea and I heard a couple of loud thumps against the side of the house. We thought it must be wind knocking tree branches against the house. Several loud yowels corrected us. Our neighbor's cat, Loki, had climbed up a tree and...

My Favorite Places

My wife and I were taking a little road trip through East Texas, talking about summer travel plans to Montana and Wyoming, and I made the comment that I wanted to take them to Glacier because it was one of my favorite spots in the world. Now, I haven't traveled "the world." I haven't left...

RIP Charmander, Breaker of Worlds

A month ago, Charmander died. He was my son’s guinea pig, but he was also his first pet. I think there is something special about our first pet, and losing it, so I wanted to write a little something about Charmander’s death. Five or six days after Christmas (in that nebulous region of the holidays...

Fighting Nazis with my White German Shepherds

Where to begin? My younger brother and I, we tend to do the same things. For example, we both bought almost identical houses at approximately the same time without ever consulting each other. It was our parents who told us about the similarities because they had visited both houses. (I knew he had bought a...

Merry Christmas, My Gift To You

Merry Christmas! I want to make this short and sweet so that you (and I) can get back to our merriment. I hope this season finds you with family and loved ones, both two-legs and four. We have one child off celebrating Christmas with our good friends, the Stanleys. They are enjoying the beach in...

Zombie Dogs Giving Back

I enjoy making my little donations every month when I receive my royalties statement from either Amazon or Severed Press. (This month I donated to Friends of Dinosaur Ridge's Field Experience Fund, which helps offset the costs of field trips for at-risk students visiting Dinosaur Ridge as part of a school field trip.) It is...

Exploring the Dungeons of Castillo San Cristóbal

Of the two fortresses in Old San Juan, El Morro is older and more popular, but when we visited Castillo San Cristóbal on our first day, we were all blown away by this strange and mysterious fort. It was built by the Spanish in the 1700s to protect their interests in the Caribbean. As the...

Cardio: The Travel Tip I Never See

I was thinking the other day how important cardio is for traveling. This is the one tip I never read mentioned in travel articles. Always wearing sunscreen, not drinking the local water, and stashing emergency money in a sock just in case you lose your wallet are all good travel tips, but nobody mentions cardio,...

The Family Friendly Horror Writer

So I really get into Halloween decorating. I get into it so much that my wife calls me the Martha Stewart of Mayhem. I like the title. If you check out my Instagram (@42Trails, also at the bottom of the page), you can see some of the photos. Every year we get compliments and people...