150 - Valparaiso sneak peek #3 - "Maybe he's just a soccer fan"

 This is the third and final sneak peek of my upcoming book, VALPARAISO. It will be available a few months after posting this.

All I can say about this book is that I genuinely enjoyed writing it. It was fun. A lttle background; the idea came from an old sitting-in-a-drawer screenplay I wrote many years ago. The basic plot was there, but it was set in a different South American city. I'm not sure if I have a good reason but, for now, I don't want to say exactly what city that was. Anyway, for years I have thought it would be fun to resurrect that old story, and once I finally started on this, it proved to be a lot of fun ot write.

This is from Chapter Five:

"What do you suspect he's up to?" Brenda asked.

"Hard to say." Dobbs brought up another picture. "This is him with Chilean President, Juan Morales. This is at a soccer game. The team is Everton in the nearby city of Vina Del Mar."

Another picture flashed on the screen. "Same stadium," Dobbs said. "This time he's with Gabriel Noguero, a well known Chilean syndicate leader. Drugs, money laundering. He's heavily involved with soccer club Colo Colo, rival of Everton, from Santiago."

"So - " Brenda smiled a sarcastic smile. "Maybe he's involved in illegal activity, or maybe he's just a soccer fan."

"Maybe," Dobbs mused, "he's friends with the President of Chile just because they both love soccer, or maybe there's somethig more there."

Agent Miles leaned forward. "You said he sold classified information. Any more detials you can share?"

"All I can tell you is that THAT had nothing to do with these people. This happened after. He did that, then he fled here, thinking he could disappear into a forgotten city on the coast of Chile. He thought it would be quiet."

"Then," Brenda added, "he faked his death."

"Then he faked his death," Dobbs confirmed.

The four of them looked at each other questioningly.

"What support do I have?" Brenda asked.

"Miles will be there in the background," Dobbs answered. "Incognito, but he's there if you need him."

Brenda turned to Lynn. "You're his ex?"

Lynn nodded. "He's not a bad guy. He means well. He's just misguided...in life."

"Are you conflicted about this?"

"Not personally," Lynn said coldly. "You do what you have to do. The only personal thing I'll bring into it is that we have a son. Sophmore in college. his son misses him more than I do."

Brenda nodded with that professional detachment that all CIA operatives have to have.

Peter Wick

November 14, 2026

149 - May Greeting

 NOTE: I've done these Blast From The Past posts before, digging something out of the archives from when I was younger. This one is unique though, but I hesitate to explain why.

I wrote this when I 20 years old. It ran in my college newspaper. I mention someone named Leslie in this, and without going into full spill-my-guts mode, I'll just say breifly that yes, Leslie was my girfriend at the time. She holds a special place in my heart, perhaps because she is no longer with us. We did not stay together at that time, but we reconnected a few other times in our lives, and we very nearly stayed together when we were in our 40s. We didn't though... and in 2018 she was murdered by her ex husband. This is a true story. I'm not trying to be overly dramatic. I've always wished I could find the right way to keep her memory alive, and now maybe this piece is the way. We were young and having fun.

And maybe, just maybe, this piece is a tiny bit relevant today (or always).

MAY GREETING 

The Christmas card was small. On the cover was a delicately colored drawing of a girl and a squirrel sitting next to each other, looking out over a peaceful, serene landscape.

Above the picture were the words:

...And on Earth,

Peace, good will toward men.

I opened the card and read:

May the joy

And peace of Christmas

Be with you today

And always

There was no other writing on the card and no name inscribed, and I could not remember if someone had sent it to me, or if I had bought it, intending to send it to someone, and then forgot to.

At any rate, it was the perfect thing to send to a girl I know named Leslie. We have a game going of sending inappropriate cards on random occasions. Sending her a Christmas card in the middle of May was hardly odd compared to her sending me an anniversary card (for no reason, I assure you) a few days earlier.

I had a bit to say on the card, and to sort out my thoughts I went for a walk along the Bainbridge Island beach.

I was considering the eternal pertinence of the card's message when, in a tree up from the beach, I heard a chirping, then a squawking and fluttering of wings, and saw a blue jay streak out from the tree, chased closely by a robin. A few leaves were dislodged and fluttered to the ground, and I noticed a nest, presumably the robins, which had been damaged slightly, presumably by the jay.

I jumped slightly as a gun boomed and echoed off Puget Sound. I turned to see a naval ship with a cloud of smoke rising calmly, like a puff from a cigarette, from one of its guns. The ship was rehearsing for war, and now sat calmly, like a sophisticated bachelor, smoking.

The squawking returned as the blue jay made another attack on the robin's nest, but was driven off before causing much additional harm.

When the ship's gun boomed a second time, I high-tailed it for the door, realizing that both the birds and the naval ship had scored a direct hit, right at the center of the card's message:

...And on Earth,

Peace, good will toward men.

--------------------------------------

May the joy 

And peace of Christmas

Be with you

Today and always.

They now seemed like hollow words in the middle of May. Peace, good will, and joy had become memories as distant as Christmas itself.

I sent the card to Leslie anyway, keeping up the spirit of our game, and trustng that at least she, if no one else, would heed its message.

Peter Wick

October 14, 2026

148 - "Cheat Like Hell"

Our President...let me just say that one more time...OUR PRESIDENT has asked his supporters to "Cheat Like Hell" in the upcoming midterm elections in order to save the Republican majority in both houses of congress.

In addition to asking everyone to cheat, he has come out this past week with a promise to give everyone in the country $5,000, directly into their pocket.

Cheating and free money! Politics has never been so respectable!

We here at the Gazzette have received an exclusive read-out from internal white house meetings when some of these ideas were first tosssed around.

Prez: What can we do, guys? We have to win the upcoming midterms.

S.Miller: We shoot eveyone who isn't a Republcan.

N.Harp: Stephen, no.

Hegseth: We bomb Iran to smithereeens.

Prez: We tried that, Pete. I'm bored with bombing.

S.Miller: I know, we can BRIBE the American people.

Prez: Good, good, I like that. give me more. Details. Give me details.

N. Harp: Mr. Prez, I can already tell you the bribe idea is going to go over FANTASTIC (prints out a poll result, hands it to the President)

Hegseth: How do you get those so fast

N.Harp: (Quietly under her breath) Elves, working in the White House basement.

(Hegseth nods in understanding)

Prez: Ok, we bribe the Aerican people, $5,000 each. Can we actually do that?

S.Miller: Does it matter? We don't actually have to do it. We just have to con the voters into voting for us. Afterwards we have lots of ways too explain why the money will never come.

Prez: Great! Let's move on that. I'll make the announcement tonight at the convention. Cheat like hell! people Cheat like hell! America is TOO IMPORTANT to trust to the voters. Let's get out there and cheat like hell!

And so it came to be, that a President of the United States declared that his supporters should Cheat Like Hell in an election.

That sound you hear is the sobbing of George Washington, who just realized that his grand experiement in democracy has failed.

It MIGHT be saved, by whoever becomes President next time...maybe...but it is probably too late for the ghost of George Washington, who was just seen leading his ghost horse off a cliff in the darkness,

Peter Wick

September 14, 2026

147 - USA hosts World Cup 2026 - The Good News And The Bad News

Once every four years, while the World Cup is happening, I make a point of saying that there is only one thing I am interested in wrting about. This time we are hosting the tournament, and if we have been payng attention, we have learned something about ourselves in the process.

 But let me be more respectful to our co-hosts, Mexico and Canada. We did not host this tournament alone, and it was better for having been shared by our two neighbors.

Let's be honest, though, the biggest moments of the 2026 World Cup - both good and bad - have happened in the United States.

Actually, one more disclaimer; I am publishing this while the semi-finals are still happening, so I might be premature. Who knows what will happen in the coming days after I post this?

THE GOOD!

American hospitality! Yes, it is reassuring to know that even during one of our most divided and rancorous moments in history, when families are divided against themselves, friends and relatives struggle to find common ground, that good ol' American hospitality can shine through.

Let's start with the town of Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence was announced as the home base of the Algerian national soccer team while they were in the U.S. for the tournament, and the town went all in. Algerian flags were draped across the town. Locals met the team at the airport and went out of their way to thank the Algerian team for choosing their town as their home base, and made absolutely sure that the team felt welcome.

When I read this it made me smile. Thanks, Lawrence, Kansas, for reminding the world that Americans of all stripes still prioritize hospitalaity and a welcoming spirit.

Then there's Waffle House.

Sometimes we Americans need a reminder; a reminder that we live in abundance. Sometimes it takes folks from another country to come here and give us that reminder. This time it seems to have been the massive swarms of Scottish fans who poured into the country and found a new guilty pleasure in Waffle House. Some of them couldn't get enough of it. Big portions, sweet butterey syrupy waffles. "Oh, it's so GOOD," one Scottish fan is quoted as saying.

You're welcome Scottish fans. I mean, myself, I've laid off of the buttery syrupy sweetness, but go crazy. Enjoy!

Thanks to Americans of all persuasions for welcomng the world to a soccer tournament.

Now...

THE BAD!

Donald Trump!

Where to begin; with the Presidetial meddling in a red card drama (after he admitted he did not know what a red card was), or... well...ok, just that.

Our childish, petty, illiterate President (thank god we still live in a country where I won't be thrown in jail for saying that) did more to motivate Belgium to, not only beat us, but beat us in high flying style, make our national team look like amateurs in the process, and then cap it all off by making fun of the President's dance in the locker room afterwards.

I support the Belgium players in mocking Donald Trump's dance. There is an old saying in sports; don't say anything that will motivate your opponent. Our Prez just walked right through that truism, and in the process fucked up the World Cup.

What else is new?

Actually I take that back. He was unable - try as he might - to completely fuck up the World Cup. The tournament has just been too good. The quality of play on the field. The way Americans embraced the sport, a sport that used to be ignored in this country.

The game of soccer has just been too good to fuck up.

Well done, America!

Even when we have moronic, selfiish, leaders, the American people seem to find a way to come through.

Peter Wick

July 14, 2026

146 - Valparaiso sneak peek #2

 NOTE: My upcoming novella (it's a quick 120 pages) Valparaiso will be out either late this year (2026) or at the very beginning of 2027. You can catch up by reading the 1st sneak peek here, although that section has also been slightly re-wrtitten - the minor changes are just that, minor. Here is the frist full mock-up of the cover:

From Chapter Four:

          Tommy unlocked the front door of The Everton Club, the restaurant-bar he owned in the center of Valparaiso.

          The club was named for the professional soccer team in the neighboring city, Vina Del Mar.

          The team itself was named in honor of the English team Everton a century or so earlier, after England’s Everton had visited Chile on a preseason tour.

          Tommy entered the restaurant and locked the door from inside. Antonio poked his head out of the office.

          “The delivery is delayed,” Antonio said. “Apparently the delivery driver ran into a building.”

          Tommy laughed. “Which building?”

          “I don’t know.”

          “Hopefully he ran into Cinzano.”

          “Hopefully they still get the delivery here,” Antonio mused. “We’re out of everything.”

          “Everything?”

          “Almost everything.”

          “Almost…” Tommy trailed off.

          Tommy walked through the empty seating area, toward the kitchen.

          He opened the walk-in refrigerator and looked inside. The shelves, while not quite empty, were suspiciously lacking in food. Tommy nodded with a resigned acceptance.

          As he closed the walk-in door two boys, Roberto and Alexis, came running in through the back door.

          “Tommy!”

          “Tommy!”

          The two boys ran into the kitchen with that energy that only 10-year-old boys seem to have.

          “Tommy! Tommy!” Alexis shouted.

          “Guess what we saw,” Roberto yelled.

          Tommy didn’t have to respond. The boys encouraged each other to keep shouting. Tommy smiled at them.

          “We were just up the street,” Alexis said.

          “This guy had this huge mask.”

          “No, I get to tell it!” Alexis whined.

          “He was walking with this big mask.”

“Hey!” Alexis interrupted. “I’m telling it.”

Tommy subtly took control of the moment.

“It’s okay,” Tommy said. “You can both tell it, over some food.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

The three of them had danced this dance before.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Tommy assured them. “You go sit down.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

The boys went into the seating area, passing Antonio on the way,

 “Hi Antonio,” Roberto shouted.

“Hi Antonio,” Alexis echoed.

“Roberto! Alexis!” Antonio shouted back with a smile. “What’s going on, my brothers?”

Tommy came through the hallway last and said, “Whatever they want, Antonio.

“Excellent!” Antonio began. “Let’s start with a shot of Rum, and then –“

“Food, Antonio. Food!” Tommy implored.

Everyone laughed, including Roberto and Alexis.

Tommy sat at the table with the boys.

“So, this guy with the mask,” Roberto began.

“Roberto was so scared he screamed,” Alexis blurted out

“I did not!”

Tommy sat back and let the two boys compete with each other.

He looked out the window as a car stopped and a man got out.

Tommy’s attention was split between the two boys and the man who had gotten out of the car.

He peered through the window.

The man on the street looked left, then right, then dodged traffic to cross the street away from Tommy’s view.

Tommy relaxed. He turned back to the two boys.

Peter Wick

June 13, 2026

145 - AI Hallucinations

 From The Guardian:

"The elite Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell has told a court that a major filing it made in a high profile case contained errors resulting from hallucinations generated by artificial intelligence.

"In multiple instances, S&C, which employs more than 900 lawyers and has one of the top reputations for corporate work in the US, filed inaccurately summarised conclusions made in other cases using AI."

Hallucinations...Hm...No one told me A.I. was going to trip out like it's on mushrooms.

When I wrote my book How To Confuse A.I. a few years ago (and decided to give the audiobook away for free on YouTube - now at more than three quarters of a million listens), I set out to make fun of the CEO's who are selling us on this technology, poking fun at their religiosity and their overblown tendency to make wild predictions about how amazing life under A.I. will be.

The reality, though, is beginning to write a few unexpected jokes of its own.

I've been reading, recently, about the growing "Anti-A.I." movement, as it is starting to be called. For the record, I definitely do not support the violent wing of this movement. Whoever it was who threw a molotov cocktail at Open AI CEO Sam Altman needs to sit down and reassess his priorities in life.

Maybe I am feeling a need - as someone who has come out with a satirical semi take-down of absurd A.I. CEOs - to clarify my own take on A.I. as a movement and as a technology. A.I. is not an inherently bad technology. As a simple tech tool, it may very well have its worthwhile uses. I can only imagine how helpful it might be in space travel...as long as we don't name anything 'Hal.'

...And as long as A.I. in space is not hallucinating, or tripping on mushrooms, and doesn't mistake a floating piece of space debris for an attacking Klingon warship.

No, my desire to poke fun at the overblown sales pitch these guys are giving us, is to point out that they are just hyper-capitalists trying to suck as much money from us as they can, and trying to make us smile as they do it.

Which brings me to Elon Musk and Grokipedia.

I have to stay humble about my own place - or lack of it - in the popular culture. I'll admit to being a little jealous of my good friend Mark Arm for making it to Wikipedia, but I deal with it by channeling Mark's own take on these things, which is to simply not care (some days I'm more successful at not caring than other days).

With this background, I was surprised, recently, to discover that Elon Musk's A.I.-generated 'competition' with Wikipedia - Grokipedia - had a page about me.

I've added a link above, but I fully expect that at some point, people reading this will click to find a blank page linked, because I fully expect Grokipedia to fold and disappear.

I was a little shocked to discover that Grokipedia thought I was relevant enough to do a write-up about, but my temporary ego-boost was softened by the cynicism and eye-rolling brought on by the realization that Grok had written an amatuerish piece, partly stolen from other internet write-ups, and suffering from that half-assed school-age writing porocess that would have gotten it a C+ at best if this were a school writing assignment. Teachers these days are worried about their students using A.I. 

Just remind the stiudents that A.I. is amateurish at best, and that human students should be expected to do better.

I also have to laugh at Grok's decision (was it a 'decision'? this implies critical thinking, and a little bit of pettiness on Grok's part) to avoid mentioning my one piece of work that affects it; my book and audiobook, How To Confuse A.I.

Why, I have to wonder, would A.I. go to the trouble to write me up in its pages, only to decline to mention my one piece of work that casts doubt on its own trustworthiness?

But, hey, at least Grok isn't hallucinating! At least not this time.

So I am now announcing my own competitiion with Grokipedia, named Psychedelipedia, which is TRAINED to hallucinate as much as possible.

Psychedlipedia is not quite ready to go to market yet, but I am enjoying the development process. just yesterday, in a training session, I asked Psychedelipedia, "What should I wear to work today?" And it answered with this:

"Woah, Dude, are you wearing war paint on your face? No? Dude! You should be, because I see old school war paint! But Dude,you know what you should wear to work today? The skin of a dead antelope! Seriously, no one will expect it! You're gonna blow everyone's mind, man. Hey, is that bag of Doritos over there moving? DUDE! There's a bag of Doritos over there that is opening itself and eating itself! Oh my god, I can't take it anymore. What? that's your cat cleaning itself? But listen, man, what really is a cat? Can you REALLY tell me that a cat cannot also be a bag of Doritos? I mean, the universe is full of mysteries, Dude. You just have to open up your MIND to them!"

Peter Wick

May 14, 2026

144 - Movie Pizza Love

 Movie Pizza Love is a VERY low budget film we shot in 2006 (happy 20th anniversay to everyone who was involved). It took a couple years of struggle through post production to get the film out in front of audiences, which is why IMDb lists it as a 2008 film.

My editor friend Marceline De Angelis and I have been working on what we're calling the 'restored 2026 version' of the film. It still isn't perfect - shooting for free in restaraunts and bars means weird sound issues when fridges and fans turn on in the background.

This first group of pictures is from a pre-production meeting, held at the Monkey Pub, which we later shot scenes in, for free. The Monkey Pub is still there, on Roosevelt Way in Seattle. I've fallen out of touch with the old crew from back in the day, but it looks like the same vibe is still around.

If I remember right, all of these pictures - except for Brett's face looking up into B camera - were taken by my sister Keren.

 

I remember walking into the Monkey Pub one day - I knew a couple regulars and a bartender there - and asking the owner about the idea of shooting some scenes there. She was all for it. I sheepishly brought up money, and humbly mentioned that we were a very low budget operation. "No Problem," she said. "It's free publicity. You can shoot here for free." So we scheduled some afternoons - they didn't open until 5pm, so we got 4 hours a day, 12:00 to 4pm to do whatever we wanted. This of course included blocking out the big window doors that were letting in afternoon sunlight, to make it look and feel like nighttime.

The irony around this nighttime look is that we also shot in the pizza place I was working at. They let us shoot at night - Midnight to 6am - and we had to do the opposite. We hung bright lights outside the windows to make middle of the night look like daytime at the pizza place.

The title, Movie Pizza Love, comes from the fact that there is a movie within a movie, there's pizza and there's love. Simple. 

While I did write the script, I have to concede that a few of the best scenes were improvised, such as the picture above with cinematographer Brett Sechrist looking into B Camera, and improvising - along my old friend Smitty from behind B Camera - maybe the funniest scene in the movie.

 

  

 

  

The film ended up being an award-winner at IndieFest, where it also won the Original Song Award for Jen Casebeer's "Trashy Novel." That's Jen Casebeer with the red hair, in her only acting role ever (so far), and I thought she was brilliant.

When I emalied her recently to let her know that we were working on a 'restored version' of the film, I was happy to hear back from her, and equally happy that she gave us her blessing. The original film landed on YouTube in 2013 and managed to make it onto several people's 'fav films' list. It's true. Back then there was a social network/Facebook knock-off named, if I remember right, 'pplsbk.' I began to run into several lists on that site with Movie Pizza Love listed as a favorite. The film was also pirated. This is also true. There was an illegal website called (I think) movietorrents, and this film landed on the site illegally. Now, before I tell you my REAL response, I have to be responsible and remind everyone...DO NOT PIRATE MOVIES. There, that's out of the way. Now...  my REAL response? I loved it! Seriously. Someone cared enough to pirate my movie. I was thrilled.

Not long after, though, both the social network and the pirate website both went under and disappeared.

After that, the film was on Amazon Prime Video for a few years back before 2020. I don't know if everyone is aware of this. but Amazon has been dropping indie films in recent years. I know of many films - some by friends of mine - that used to be on Prime Video and have since been dropped. I feel fortunate and happy to say that I still have two films on Prime. Movie Pizza Love is not one of them, though, at least not right now...

Whether it makes it back to Prime - or another streamer - is still up in the air. This restored version is not extremely different from the original. It is the same movie. We just tried to clean up some of the weird sound issues (remember what I mentioned at the top about shooting in real restaraunts and bars?). We tried. There are still some surviving sound issues in the new version, though. We also trimmed a couple little edits, tightening a couple of transitions, making the film just a tiny bit shorter (literally just seconds shorter).

Stay tuned for updates about where it becomes available. I would expect to see it somewhere within the coming couple of months.

Here's the new trailer, although it hasn't changed much from the original trailer.

Enjoy!

Peter Wick

April 14, 2026