Musings & Tales
The foundation of a good story begins with a nugget of truth. With a shift of light and shadow, a focus on a detail, a blurring of lines... the storyteller remembers it better. From his home in Asheville surrounded by beautiful mountains, author D. K. Wall shares his stories—thoughtful reflections and original tales drawn from a lifetime in the Carolinas and Tennessee. They all have one thing in common: They're 100% true... except for the parts he makes up. Join author D.K. Wall for Musings & Tales.
Episodes
Exaggerated accumulations. Claims of driving skills. Legends of regional toughness. Winter reveals Snow Mythology under every drift.
Over the past two consecutive weekends, Asheville has been hit by winter storms. Much of the eastern half of the U.S. has felt the pain. Social media has been on fire with claims that seem more mythical than real, at least in my experience.
This story was originally a musing I wrote back in 201...
The forecast calls for snow. The internet calls for panic. The grocery crowd calls for bread and milk.
When a winter storm threatens, Gabe loses a fateful game of rock-paper-scissors and must venture into the suburban nightmare known as the pre-storm grocery run. His mission: bread, milk, and toilet paper. His obstacles: empty shelves, a shopping cart with the steering of a drunken goose, and an increasingly angry woman in ...
A backpacking trip through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico. A false sense of security. An unexpected breakfast with bears.
📖 Read Breakfast with Bears on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Are you an enthusiastic hugger? Or a reluctant hugger? Can one marry into the family of another?
During a recent evening in a favorite restaurant, I witnessed such a collision. A young couple came for dinner with her clan of enthusiastic touchers. The body language of the young man, though, communicated his reluctance for contact. Mix in my imagination, and we have the recipe for today's humorous tale.
In a house full of Siberian Huskies, no sound is worse than quiet. And when it's the biggest talker of them all, the silence of Sally is deafening.
📖 Read The Silence of Sally on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Only three miles. Such a short distance. For Kevin, it is the razor-thin line between the best time of his life... and the worst.
A haunting, twisted tale about the decisions we make in the dark.
📖 Read Three Miles on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true....
Ever been part of a "perfect" holiday tradition that went completely, hilariously sideways? 🤔
I'm sharing a memory from my childhood as an altar boy, on the most important night of the year: the Christmas Eve midnight service. It involves two nervous acolytes, a brilliant new invention (wax-free candles!), and a secret practice run that combined to create… well, a massive failure to light. 🔥😂
It's a story about good inten...
Tom Bradley's hands were skilled at crafting beautiful furniture, but after Hurricane Helene slammed into the Asheville region, they were calloused from clearing debris. With his workshop washed away and Christmas just a day off, he brings home a mangled, one-sided tree—another reminder of all they'd lost. Or was it a reminder of all they had?
📖 Read A Tree for Christmas on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels...
Our lives are governed by choices, but what if you only had to make one? Meet Roscoe, a Siberian Husky whose life is a blissful, decision-free paradise... with one hilarious exception. While his meals, exercise, and bedtime are dictated by a higher authority, one daily ritual becomes a dramatic performance of indecision. He performs the "Roscoe Shuffle"—an intricate, comical dance of sniffing, circling, and leg-lift delibe...
For her big Hollywood break, my sister, a professional ballerina, was plucked from a rehearsal and thrust onto a chaotic movie set. The role was simple: die. But the director's increasingly bizarre notes—from "faster" to "slower" to the baffling "curvier"—turned her debut into a masterclass in absurdity.
📖 Read A Curvy Death on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tale...
Staring down a canceled flight and a ruined holiday weekend, Jordan Delay is drowning in frustration. But the sound of a hushed, emotional phone call from a young soldier in the terminal changes everything. He's faced with a choice: retreat into his own problems, or change the course of his journey entirely. "Long Way Home" is a short story about perspective, empathy, and how the kindness of strangers can redefine the mean...
Confronted with a hefty trespassing bovine, my lack of cattle wrangling skills and conflicting expert advice led to a hilarious bum steer.
📖 Read Bum Steer on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Seven cities. Seven schools. Time for number eight.
Caleb’s survival strategy for the first day as the new kid is simple: stay invisible. But within minutes of stepping into the chaotic hallways, a series of small disasters—a collision, a wrong turn, a stolen seat—threatens to make him a target.
When everything goes wrong, can one small act of kindness change everything?
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, aut...
"A flamingo punched me in the nose." How can a tale start any better? Take a feisty flamingo flamboyance and diaper-dangling days, then mix in one very determined goat. What's a few off-the-rail animal encounters among friends?
📖 Read Great Goat Grab on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home h...
Today's tale is Mystical Talking Jack-O'-Lantern, a recounting of a magical event that happened every Halloween in my childhood neighborhood—a talking jack-o'-lantern came to life.
This story was originally published in 2017, but it has become a perennial favorite, captivating readers every year. To celebrate Halloween this year, I decided to bring this beloved tale to audio.
"Code Blue" next door. In the sudden silence of the ER, I braced for tragedy, but the first voice to emerge from Room 28 changed everything.
📖 Read To The Stranger in Room 28 on my website
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Join my world of forgotten acquaintances, awkward encounters, and the time a convenience store clerk outplayed me in a memory game. No matter how much I try, I Can't Remember Your Name.
📖 Read I Can't Remember Your Name on my website.
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100...
If social media is so broken, a reader asked, why don't I quit? Because I ditched doomscrolling and went back to the past when it was fun. Here's how.
📖 Read Putting the Social Back in Social Media on my website.
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for t...
With political polarization rampant, is respectful disagreement a lost art? When will we learn to listen, disagree, and let live?
📖 Read Listen, Disagree, and Let Live on my website.
Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.
Fifty years ago, on June 20, 1975, Jaws landed in movie theaters—and changed how we felt about swimming in the ocean. That same summer, we vacationed in Myrtle Beach, like we did most years. Only this time, the trip ended in tragedy when a shark attacked my best friend. This is that story—told as best I can remember it—through the eyes of the eleven-year-old who witnessed the horror.
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