My son Finn, lies sleeping in the other room, unconcious but aware that withing a few short hours he will be turning four. He entered this world in the Republic of Korea, a country he was not destined for but will remained linked with for the end of his days. For this and other reasons I find myself think of the words of Glenn Ford in Superman, which I am destined to one day repeat:

“Son, the one thing I am sure of, the one thing I know, is that you’re here for a reason.”

I was looking at the newborn of a friend of mine today, and I'm wondering why all babies look like Winston Churchill after a night of hard drinking.

I went out to look at the waining harvest moon and spotted Jupiter in the southern sky.

I'm now indoors looking at other heavenly bodies...

In the time it's taken me to finish my book, almost every literary magazine I've ever been in has gone the way of a dodo, here are few that can still be found:

One of the only non fiction pieces I ever published, last month in Grumble Magazine:

http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles/davidmclain/my-letter-from-moses-sussman-or-how-i-decided-to-become-a-communist/

An old one from the Paumanok Review. One of the longest pieces of fiction of mine that has ever seen the light of day.

http://www.paumanokreview.com/index.php?page=mclain

Also from Grumble, a short piece of fiction on infidelity:

http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles/davidmclain/loveattheedgeoftheworld.html

From Gator Springs Gazette, a story called Freak, one of my favorites. The original print edition had this really cool looking picture that the online version doesn't have.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/fandango.virtual/gator/qob_page_4.htm

The one I should have never admit to having written-

http://www.niteblade.com/pre-09-archives/september-2007/stories/dragon-bait

The fifth draft of the Life of A Thief will be done Sunday.

Fifth draft of the book is nearly complete. Onward to oblivion.

Just for the record, I actually have two sons:

Albert



Finn



Neither one looks like me. This isn't a coincidence.

I find it hard to talk about myself, as life has been extremely difficult lately. But the kids are always good.

A friend of mine from when I was a kid became an actor. Not exactly a famous actor, but I see him on TV from time to time. (His name is Jeremy Davidson and currently he's on something called Army Wives.) He sent me an email a few weeks ago telling me that he'd directed a movie. It's called Tickling Leo and was produced by Mary Stuart Masterson. I was impressed by this. I looked at the movie's website, and I found a video clip with him talking about the movie with someone from Fox News. In the interview he's sitting next to Mary Stuart Masterson, who is nine months pregnant and he has her arm around her. I think to myself "Wow, that's odd, the way he has his arm around her it looks like he's married to Mary Stuart Masterson."

Then I get to the end of the interview and it turns out he IS married to Mary Stuart Masterson.

The strange thing is, this is not the strangest person to marry someone I've known. My life is odd.

Replacing my solitary blog post from three years ago...

Fifth draft of the book almost finished. I'll be glad when it's done. After that, well, we'll work on a publisher some, but I don't expect much. I would like to find at least a small publisher, as the new book is much more commercial and would benefit from a little extra oomph attached to my bio. The truth is almost no one will read it whether it's published or not.

A good friend of mine seems to have stopped returning my calls. It's sad. I miss her. Perhaps I've been given the wrong impression.

I've been spending a lot of energy in a deep pit of self loathing and it really isn't good.

Back to cleaning the house.

David McLain graduated from Purchase College, where he directed a production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. His stories have appeared in over a dozen magazines, including: Harvard's Dudley Literary Review, Gator Springs Gazette, Paumanok Review, Bellowing Ark, and the Taj Mahal Review. He lives in Western Massachusetts.