Stephen Metcalfe

The Annual Christmas Post When Wayne McKee walks into his kitchen, he is suddenly and obliquely aware of how cold and grey and unkempt the room is. Is it possible that it’s changed in the three minutes it took him to get to and from the back door of the house? As if seeing it…

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I’ve been working on some different things and haven’t posted in a while. I thought I’d throw out a small blast from the past. These are two excerpts from my novel, The Practical Navigator, published in 2016. * “You seem particularly edgy today.” “Do I? You don’t.” In the five weeks that Anita’s been seeing…

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From my novel, Attachment Patterns It came from the back of the room, a soft, shy voice. “Mr. Boone, what is it you like about art?” (Talk about questions.) “Jesus, I don’t know, I just do it.” More giggles and grins and Dad smiled in return. He pondered a moment. What did he like about…

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An interesting phrase came across my desk recently.  The Great Exhaustion.  It seems that all over the world a vast number of people are tired.  Burnt out.  Stressed out.  Overwhelmed.  It apparently makes them want to lie down and take a nap.   Okay, not really.  By nap, one is referring to sleep.  In this case, it’s more…

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Yes, it’s happening, something grand. The news came out of nowhere, a complete surprise.  “Okay, what do you think this is,” asked my lovely daughter, she and her husband, showing us an image on her cell phone.  My wife and I had no idea.  It looked like a small, swirling whirlpool.  (“A hurricane in the…

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Much to my surprise, a review appeared on Amazon for my recently self-published collection of essays, Crossing the Meadow.  I certainly didn’t expect it but here it is.  (Thank you, Jim!) Imagine you’re flying from the West Coast to London. It’s a very long flight, and you can’t get to sleep. The passenger sitting next…

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Crossing the Meadow. A metaphor for a writer’s life. Walking through a world you imagine in your head.  This collection of short pieces is divided into four sections.  Plays, Movies and Words are about the adventures of a working writer. The Desperate Man are some early shouts and murmurs about fatherhood and family. Dog-Dumb entails…

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