Image courtesy of Pickpik by way of a Creative Commons search.
INTRODUCTION I’m trying to think back to the first moment I experienced a fear of heights. It has something to do with my father. Lest you believe this sounds like a therapy session, I mean, quite literally my father. I… READ MORE
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INTRODUCTION As I was writing “I Feed the Machine” I did not envision a future America where political criminals and religious fundamentalists might rule the land. Yet here we are, in the summer of 2024. The corrupt Supreme Court has… READ MORE
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INTRODUCTION This story is about a hypocrite. A particular kind of hypocrite. The Republican kind of hypocrite. Full disclosure: For most of my life I was registered as a Republican. The Republican Party was the party of reason. It was… READ MORE
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Introduction to “The Garage” Craig Terry gave me the idea for this story. He didn’t own a garage. I met Craig in the 1990s. I was working at a newspaper, editing copy, putting together sections, and Craig was hired as… READ MORE
Introduction to “The Hole” I wrote this story as part of a project I called “13 Seconds,” a collection of one-page horror stories, each with an accompanying full-page illustration. Alas, that project never saw the light of day. But the… READ MORE
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Introduction to “The Thing in the Dark” I’ve always been afraid of the dark. To this day, I’m hesitant to go outside at night. We live in a dark neighborhood. I don’t care how many streetlights they install, it still… READ MORE
Image courtesy of Raw Pixel.
Introduction to “The Tooth Fairy” This story was based on an actual experience, though I didn’t run into any Freddy Krueger-style monsters from dreamland. We had a grocery store in town at the time – Food World – which was… READ MORE
Image by Zarina Khalilova for Pexels. CC license. https://www.pexels.com/@zarina-khalilova-207741792/
Introduction to “When She Cries” Back in the ’80s America held a lively conversation with itself about self-defense. Several high-profile cases had come to pass where wives had shot and killed abusive husbands, girlfriends had killed abusive boyfriends, and children… READ MORE
Mordant. Droll. Genius. “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” is my introduction to David Sedaris, and it is perfect.
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This is a scene from my novel “Black Tide,” which I hope to begin shopping to an agent later this year or next. In this scene, Fred, Heather and Scotty are trapped on a spoil island in Santa Rosa Sound… READ MORE