Stories and images from what keeps me going.

A self-taught painter decides to write a novel. A dozen coats, a lot of orphaned canvases, and what the characters taught me about myself.

A reader asked whether the gangs in Sanctuary are real. They are. On MS-13, Barrio 18, the crackdown that followed, and the road through Honduras.

We have lost the ability to sit still and enjoy what is around us. A case for empty afternoons, rainy windowsills, and letting the mind wander.