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.

📖 Read The Reluctant Hugger 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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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... except for the parts I make up.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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 intentions and the chaos that sometimes follows. I can still feel my arms burning from holding that heavy cross while it all unfolded!

📖 Read A Failure to Light 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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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 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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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 deliberation that turns a simple bodily function into a high-stakes negotiation with the universe. From forensic "Geological Surveys" to the "Canine Compass Theory," we explore the profound weight of a single choice through the eyes of a very particular dog.

If you've ever been overwhelmed by options or just love a good dog story, this one's for you.

📖 Read Roscoe Shuffle 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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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 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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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 meaning of being home.

📖 Read Long Way Home 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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

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?

📖 Read New Kid 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.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!