The two men moved through the rugged high desert of Nevada, their steps uncertain and breathing heavy. For two days, Jonah Williams and Eli Colton had been afoot, their horses torn apart in a night of terror. They carried what they could salvage—their canteens, a Winchester, a Colt .45, and a growing desperation. The bristlecone…

Life had planned an eventful chapter for me on that crisp winter day. A chapter that would test my nerves, my faith, and my sense of humor in ways I could not have imagined. Now, if you ain’t ever had the peculiar experience of being marked for death and forced to dig your own grave,…

With the weather in a peculiar phase of warmth for a winter’s day, I decided to try out a suggestion that would lend energy to my body and be a salve for my soul. Now, this modern marvel is called Earthing. The instructions were delightfully simple: remove shoes and socks and plant oneself firmly upon…

You may find this account peculiar, perhaps even trifling, until you have read it to its conclusion. It concerns the small but disconcerting occurrences that have beset our household since the passing of Christmas—a time when, as you know, the spirit of cheer can so easily give way to unease once the lights are extinguished…

Peace doesn’t always arrive in the form of a soft bed or a perfect setting. Sometimes, it’s found in the most unassuming places—an empty room, a handful of blankets, and the quiet surrender of laying down, letting the world pause around you. In that moment, the absence of luxury feels irrelevant. Bare and silent, the…

The first stirrings of the storm came courtesy of a capricious little breeze that had graduated with honors from the School of Mischief. The Zephyr, tumbling down Sun Mountain like a drunken miner after payday, took to snapping shop signs along C Street. It whipped them about so violently that respectable citizens took to the…

Writing for a living is a profession fraught with hazards, almost invisible to the naked eye, and perilous to domestic tranquility. The uninitiated might imagine these hazards as writer’s block, a scathing review, or a paper cut. But let me assure you that the gravest dangers lurk not in the critics’ pages or spilled blood…

“I never really cared for my facial features until I saw them from my coffin,” he said, teeth so white they seemed to glow. His words hung in the air, heavy and cold, as if the heater in the all-night coffee shop had suddenly failed. His smile was dazzling, almost unnatural, the kind that made…

Many apologies, dear readers, for my unpardonable lapse in judgment that I am about to confess. I blame my dogs, though, in all fairness to their moral fiber–they are not solely at fault. The absence of children in the household has left them bereft of certain traditional amusements, such as the consumption of homework—a vice…

Christmas morning dawned with all the pomp and splendor one might expect from a holiday dedicated to peace, joy, and the annual reminder that wrapping paper cannot be recycled. The children—who exist only in the stories of others, for our home is devoid of such noise-makers—were replaced by my wife, Mary, and me, gleefully tearing…