Flights of Fancy

  • An Aging Writer Contemplates the Journey

    Welcome, traveler. Pour a cup and make yourself comfortable. You’ve arrived at a site created by an old writer for writers and readers alike. Let me begin by explaining who you’ve fallen in with. First, my name is Jack. Jack Tyler to be thorough, and you’ll find it on four books plus stories in several…

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  • Safe Haven

    Last Wednesday I posted about the handful of post-navy years I enjoyed, much of that time spent in and around Ocean Beach, California. Years later I wrote a story based in OB, a town whose name I changed to Sunset Beach. The story, Safe Haven, was supposed to be the beginning of a series. That…

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  • The ‘tween Years

    It’s the first week in October, 1969. On the third day the navy released me from my service contract, a Minority Enlistment, and on the seventh I turned 21. The navy had provided me with a wide range of skills and some grand adventures ~ that’s me in Hong Kong, standing in my boat as…

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  • Heart on her Sleeve

    Good morning, friends and followers, and I hope it finds you well. Today I have chosen to complete the first three-story anthology, Diner of Dread I. The Diner of Dread series will consist of short stories, three course meals, as it were, beginning with some of my older works that have found favorable reception. Everyone…

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  • The Yacht Club

    When we last left our stalwart young hero, he was poised to join the military. Twelfth grade, which I had already decided (with my mother’s approval) that I would not be attending, began in September. My birthday is in October, and it was right around then that President Johnson began leaning into his intention to…

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  • The Coder’s Muse

    Good Sunday morning, friends, and welcome back to ‘story time.’ Have you ever tried to play above your level, “out of your league,” as the saying goes. Most of us have at one time or another, and results can vary. The Coder’s Muse, currently residing at the top of Diner of Dread, Volume I, is…

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  • The End of School…

    A while back, I waxed poetic about Mrs. Warner, the brilliant fifth-grade teacher who gave me a nudge down the path of writing fiction. She was a huge influence on young master Jack, and no doubt about it. But she wasn’t all there was to school; many trials and tribulations were left to be endured.…

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  • Wrong Turn

    Good morning, friends. Today on Favorites, I offer another of what I consider my best stories, Wrong Turn. A quick read at 1900 words, it is a story of storm-chasing gone wrong and a chaser too aggressive for her own good. Drop by for what might best be described as an unsettling good time.

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  • Changing Times

    I hate the change to and from Daylight Savings Time. Twice a year my body spends a week jet-lagged without moving more than a hundred feet from my current latitude. I understand the need for it by those not blessed to live in paradise with me, but that doesn’t make it better. At least I’m…

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  • The Diner of Dread

    This feature may become the garden spot of the site, although I would hope my blog would give it a run for its money. But here will appear a collection of my short stories which are largely tales of terror, disaster, and sometimes pure existential dread. The sharp-eyed among you will notice the Roman “One”…

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  • How do These Things Get Started?

    It was September of 1957, and I was about to enter the fifth grade at Sunset View Elementary School in San Diego. A month into it, I would turn ten, a milestone age being the first one with two digits. But, seriously, a month before my birthday, I had to start the school year, and…

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