Turning to his patient, and grinning, the paramedic asked: “Perdóneme, un pregunta, Señor: Dañó su cabeza?” (Excuse me, one question, Sir: Did you hurt your head?)… Continue Reading
At six, still raining, sky gray as sand, he walked along the shipyards. Stacks of rusty pots, boats up on stands, messy gravel parking lots. He passed puddles, but none big enough to demand his attention. None could hold a crab, much less a ship.… Continue Reading
Big time baseball pitchers pose in mirrors, thinking they’re all sporting fairly large and attractive balls. But baseball is silly. My daddy has a pair of dried-out bull dangles on his truck hitch, and I’m not talking stupid rubber impostors.… Continue Reading
We had been together for six years before I semi ended things and moved up north. I used the semi because I rarely truly close a chapter. I usually leave a hope, a possibility, a kindle before I am never seen again.… Continue Reading
You can kill everything in the game, an entire universe of things to murder, and the few things that you can’t kill, you can bring to life with cheat codes and then kill. Intense violence, blood and gore, Graphic Depictions of Harm has it all.… Continue Reading
A man shouldn’t have to apologize for the smell of his own equipment or for what he tried to do to stay in shape.… Continue Reading
Except it’s not the light that causes me pain. It’s the darkness. I can hardly step out in the sun at all anymore, let alone stare at it. Cancer. The sun hates us, you know.… Continue Reading
If you’re going to be a serious writer, you MUST read widely outside your “genre.” Classics, the ancient Greeks, poetry, experimental stuff. Everything, all the time. That way you’re not just regurgitating what other writers in your lane are doing.… Continue Reading
Easier to be chosen than to choose. Jenni knows this. She pulls us through the day on an invisible leash—her grandmother’s birthday, a trailer park, a couch that looks like an orange muppet—until there’s no edges left.… Continue Reading
My life involves precision. Observation. Balance. Not everyone can keep it up. That’s why they falter. That’s why they leave shaken. Because they glimpse the truth. That everything they call leisure is, in fact, duty. To live well is to work without end.… Continue Reading