Welcome, dear readers, to a blog that I hope will be a provocative and fun commentary and complement to my novel “Water Music,” the first in a series on “The Games Men Play” – athletic, psychological, cultural and erotic. Due out 1/14/14, “Water Music” tells the story of four male athletes – rivals, friends and lovers – and how their shifting professional fortunes color their personal relationships. Here you’ll find more about the book and me and how you can order it from Greenleaf Book Group and Amazon.com.

You’ll also find a number of poems related to “Water Music” and the second novel in the series, “In This Place You Hold Me,” about a quarterback’s search for identity – sexual, racial and familial – in the beautiful, brutal world of the NFL. We’ve added the first chapter here to give you a taste of and for it.