I am just finishing work on a my book on the Cuban Missile Crisis (The Fires of October) and I thought now would be a good time to start posting a reflection back on the crisis – day-by-day.  This is the 50^th anniversary of the crisis, thirteen days that the world held its breath during. 

‘Who’s Minding the Store?’ is about a retail home improvement store on the verge of being shut down unless sales improve. Enter Derrick Payton, a veteran retail salesman and manager. He arrives to The Design, Your Choice for Home Improvement to take on the role of operations manager. On his first day his district manager tells him, “You’re the new store manager and you’ve got one week to improve sales or the store will be closed permanent!”

I drove my daughter to school this morning; not because I don’t believe in school buses. I do. I drove her because aside from her knapsack, she also had her field hockey bag and her tenor saxophone (and we thought ants were the only creatures supposed to carry at least 10 times their body weight).

Back in college at Central Michigan University, for two years I wrote for the school newspaper, the award winning CM Life. I was an editorial columnist - which meant I had the privilege of writing about whatever I felt like. Some of my material was funny, some serious, a few pieces were political - while others simply poked fun at campus life.