About

David Gillaspie manages DeeGeesB&B, a safe haven for people and ideas reflecting off one another.  Sometimes the reflections shatter and get pieced back together, then the fun starts.   

In the real world I’ve published essays from sports,  to dance,  to caregiving.  I’ve  published locally and nationally, in newspapers, magazines, and museum periodicals. 

Screenplays Hollywood-ready include:

Flying Home (An MIT Blue Blood wins the War in the Pacific, but not the one at home.)

Leaving Town (Post-college romance goes awry in New York when a young man loses his girl but finds his heart.)

Soldier On (A bizarre Iraqi arms deal ruins the dreams of a soldier trained for greatness, until he saves the world.) 

I’m currently submitting a nonfiction book proposal, They Said Two Days, the story of bringing a loved one home to die after his doctors give him two days to live. 

My writing grows out of my experiences as an athlete, a youth sports coach, a museum collection manager, and caregiving for my father in law. 

All writers should be former wrestlers, or know one.  I write from the point of view of a high school all-American, a small town guy who wrestled through high school, college, and the Army; check subject ‘wrestling’.  Not a pretty picture.

All writers need to volunteer themselves to their country to see what it feels like after a draftee gets his letter.  I joined the Army at the end of the Vietnam war and served in Philadelphia, an urban jungle instead of the real thing.  I felt lucky.  Check subject ‘Army.’

If a writer doesn’t have a long term relationship, drugs and booze don’t count, then they won’t understand the struggle of the human heart against itself, as Faulkner liked to say in Nobel Prize speeches.  I got married years ago, still married, and coached my kids’ teams year round from primary to middle school; my last team was a group of high school basketball players.  The cross-section of kids reminded me of my Army platoon.  Sergeant Team Mom?  

What better place for a writer than a museum?  Except a real writer already worked there.  I showed him some of my poetry.  He said he didn’t understand poetry.  His chap book came out a month later.  My goal as a museum professional was to do things in Oregon that couldn’t be done anywhere else.  I think regional history carries our most important stories.  We hear it and read it without the gloss of studio effects.  Instead of juke box history hitting every note on time, local history is a garage band with a flawed heart still beating.   

Shouldn’t a writer know life intimately?  You can’t get much more intimate than caregiving.  My work as a family caregiver changed my perception of time:  the biggest and strongest among us are a nano-second away from being the smallest and weakest, someone who need help finding a reason to live.

Most people I see need to find a better reason to live than the one they’ve got, including me.  We see another day, but need to understand why.   

DG’s B&B shines a light.

Check subject ‘caregiving.’

I hope this clears a few things up.  Thanks for reading.

David