Installment One of “A Tale of Two Souls,” the journey of two souls on the road to one — Author’s Note Muscle and Bone This story begins thirty-six years ago in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and ends twenty-seven years ago in San Diego. That makes it difficult for me, the storyteller, to recount a continuous history. Instead. I have a broken sequence of memories of discrete instances across that time. …

Stories, essays, and articles — From The Desk Of Phillip Steven (“Alex”) Alexander A Short, Tongue-In-Cheek ‘Writer’s Bio’medium.com Memoir — The Coming of Age of A Gay Baby Boomer Reminiscences of 1970s D.C. A gay young buck’s coming-of-age stories of life, love, loss, and griefstevealexander-48.medium.com Reminiscences of 1970s San Francisco Stories of a gay, late twenty-somethings escapades in life, loving, and lossstevealexander-48.medium.com

Some worthy, some not so much — ▻ being the first undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University to hold a paid, graduate-level teaching assistantship ▻ repaying student loans from poker winnings gotten off the rich fraternity kids ▻ successfully holding a graduate TA in Finite Mathematics, a course I never took, by reading the textbook two chapters ahead…

Had I not abandoned computer systems for a failed Ph.D. program, I’d not have found a calling — I got my BES with an Operations Research major and Computer Science minor, but depression kept me from graduate school. After four years working as a computer systems analyst/programmer, and despite tons of money, I was acutely unhappy. I abandoned that and entered an Operations Research Ph.D. program. The department…

Revealing which of the three stories was the lie — This is the follow-up to my entry, Two Truths and a Lie, in a writing challenge game to tell three stories, two of which are true and one a lie, and challenge readers to decide which is the lie. Story Three, foiling an attempted suicide in Boston, got four votes…

A book evoked my teen longing for intimacy — In 1976, at 28, I discovered Isabelle Holland’s 1972 book “The Man Without a Face.” Holland’s 14-year-old protagonist Charles spoke directly to my early teen desperate longing for a father and intimacy with a best friend. I’d never had a friend, and he was my friend; I’d never really, except…

Sports gave way to writing — At 74, I love writing. Better to ask what I loved in youth. Until 19, I loved reading but detested sports. Others went to gym class. I inhabited the library. My college junior year, I discovered long-distance running. I ran with, but never joined, the track team. I wouldn’t have…

Speaking directly to a college kid imprisoned in his closet — In my senior year, 1969, I was in the second and greater of two severe depressive episodes that felled me in college. I was a troubled, angst-ridden 21-year-old in a closet prison of my making. It was where I kept my profound secret and shame; I was homosexual. According to…

My entry in a writing game begun on Illumination — These stories are my response to a writing game/challenge I became aware of when I read Dr. Preeti Singh’s response to the game she learned from Pam Winter. Truth or Lie Choose Which Is Right? Sometimes you do things that are really memorablemedium.com Two Truths and One Lie This is my story after I got invited to play this gamemedium.com It’s supposed to be by invitation. Although Dr. Singh didn’t invite me, I will play anyway, being the boorish buttinsky I am…