What's On Tap at The Dive Bard?

An Introduction to a Newsletter of Little Importance

First off, a hearty thank you for signing up for this little experiment. I don’t expect anything I write in this newsletter will greatly affect the course of human events, but I do hope to bring a little humor and perhaps a touch of insight into the human condition. In truth, my only qualification for this endeavor is a life-long struggle with finding something resembling a purpose. I’ve been a teacher, a bartender, a teacher (again), an international teacher, a video producer, a teacher (yet again), a film and video editor, and — most recently — a cancer survivor.

It’s that last one that threw my life into a bit of loop. Cycles of surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, and periods of recovery became the norm. Hospitals and doctor’s offices and the persistent smell of antiseptic. A constancy of nausea. These were a few of my least favorite things. But I was lucky because I was considered curable. The unpleasant things had an expiration date.

Then the treatments came to an end and after a few follow up screenings I heard the word that had eluded me for almost a year — cured. No more cancer. No more treatments. In the words of John Oliver, “Cool.”

But now what do I do with my life? Here’s a fun fact: middle aged cancer survivors do not make for the most desirable job candidates. So, with renewed energy and a whole lot of free time on my hands, I turned to my first and favorite passion: Shudder. And then I watched all the Shudder. Twice. And then all of Columbo. Thrice.

So then I returned to my second favorite passion: writing. I’ve always been a writer - rarely a good writer, but a writer irregardless (I added that to infuriate my grammar loving friends). I generally write horror. I love horror. Always have. A part of me has always been obsessed with the darker aspects of existence. When I was in high school, I worked at a Grand Union — a supermarket chain I’m not even sure exists anymore. While stocking shelves in the stationary/magazines/paperbacks aisle, I paused on the cover for The Damnation Game by Clive Barker and I tore through that book on my breaks. So while many of my horror loving peers were devouring the hometown horror of Stephen King (as well they should have been - the man was and continues to be an absolute master of the genre), I became obsessed with the more fantastical horror of Clive Barker, a writer who has influenced much of my own work.

But this newsletter isn’t about horror. IF….IF you are interested in a deep dive into horror, do please subscribe to my other newsletter — “Monster in the Mirror,” which is an offshoot of a little nonfiction project called Monstaphors. I do, however, love writing about movies and television and literature and the oddities of popular culture. So I guess that’s what this newsletter will be - a exploration of “what’s out there” seen through the lens of a peripatetic ne’er-do-well who’s got more time behind him than in front of him and who has a MaTV (Masters in All Things Trivial).

So what will this newsletter bring you each week? It will be a weekly digest of my thoughts as a writer living in troubled times (though I imaged “troubled” is all a matter of perspective and all times are troubled in their own way). Some weeks will be short essays, others will be short fiction or maybe even a mini documentary. List-icles, reviews, and who knows what else will populate these pages. I’ll also share pieces of bigger projects I’m working on.

But mostly it’s about life when you’re too old to be young and too young to be old.

Aren’t you glad you signed up? I genuinely hope you are. You have no idea what your support means to me. In the coming weeks and months and — dare I say years??? — I hope to fill your inbox with laughter and a few nuggets of wisdom. Thank you thank you thank you for being part of this journey!