Author Archives

Lucas J. Draeger

Banish me to a dark corner, chain me to a keyboard, and I will gladly be a word slave. I'd sit there all day, with only an occasional demand for a coffee break.
I'm a would-be (wanna be) author, middle aged, fairly repressed, but extremely BLESSED with an amazing wife and two brilliant boys.
For several years, I've been haunted by images of the starving, drug addicted, victimized teens of the streets. I write about them a lot.

We Don’t Want People, We Want Machines

It is my forty-third birthday today, and this year I am dedicating my annual birthday story, written from the POV of a character who shares the same birthday, to the man called Buffalo Dave. Buffalo Dave, wherever you are, this story won’t make you famous, but I hope […]

Rich Like We Were

Our dreams have a way of regressing us, don’t they? In our waking hours, we can remain masters of our own domain (or so we like to think), but in our dreams we may become the lost child we all fear we are—the kid who forgot to wear […]

Total Eddie 2017

There aren’t enough Top Lists for this New Year, so I’ve decided to fill the void with a small list of my own. I’ll call my list “Top Things Luke Experienced This Year”, or TTLETY for short. (That acronym may be pronounced “Total Eddie”, for those averse to […]

#MeFirst

“She’s a real sweetheart.” “So, are you the marketing girl?” “Have you seen what she’s wearing today?” “Wow, she’s put on some weight! Don’t you think she’s got a little extra junk in the trunk?” “You do not want to miss the after party. I hear she gets […]

We Lost One

We lost one. A close one. We saw it coming, but sometimes, if a thing moves slowly enough, it still sneaks up on you. I learned this long ago, when I lost a father. Times like this bring a clarity––a clear eye to see there is a better way […]

Two Birthdays, Two Dreams

A hammock is the best place to relax. This is what my wife told me when I opened her birthday present to me––a woven, technicolored hammock––complete with poles, since our tiny yard lacks the requisite pair of trees. At first, I laughed at the gift, but now that […]