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Beginning of Auditorium 6(66) – Horror Short Story
“Hill Valley Cinema – Grand Opening,” proclaimed a banner spread beneath the marquee. Jesse Franklin pushed his black hair out of his face, stepped back, and marvelled at the newly renovated theatre. As a boy, he had frequented the old cinema, seeing all three original Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones, and E.T. Those had been…
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Facing Loss and Embracing New Possibilities
Loss. It’s a word we don’t want to hear, let alone experience. Yet we all experience it. We all know loss, not just of it. Some of us have known it on a first name basis for too many years. If we’re lucky, some of us know it only as an acquaintance for brief periods…
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Poetry Tuesday – Desert Rose
Run rampant, flee away With life held In your sun-dried hands. Heat ablaze, Scorches desert dunes. Sand mixes in a dance Of campfire tales Of long ago. As the arid wind Makes love kiss Your avid lips, There whispers a secret Untold of magic lurking Around every corner. Should you dream Of your prince tonight,…
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Excerpt from Arianna (Unpublished WIP)
I started the first call…only for it to ring four times and go to an answering machine. I hung up. We didn’t ever leave messages, so that person’s number would just go through the system again and would be called by someone tomorrow. It was all automatic. I smiled grimly, thinking of all the times…
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Review of First of September by Kathleen Joyce
You know that cozy feeling of holding a warm beverage, wrapped in a blanket, and curling up with a good book by the fire? That’s Kathleen Joyce’s cozy mystery…with a murder or two in the mix. I admit that I haven’t read many cozy mysteries, but the appeal is inviting from page one of First…
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Poetry Tuesday – The Pearl
Why do flowers not dance in fields? Can you tell me why snow conceals Our foundation and terrain? Dare I speak in vain? Yet I beg it not, For if changing winds ought, They blow away Lingering sadness of today. The burden lies on my heart, But the heart doesn’t fall apart. Friend, take my…
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Excerpt from Arianna (Unpublished WIP)
Friday evening, after closing the book, I went to my familiar place at the vanity and sat. My tattered journal was now full, so I reached for the paper bag that held a new one. On the way home from work, I’d taken a detour to a historical part of one of the western suburbs…
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Saying Goodbye to Toxic Friendships
We all do it. We eat the chocolate cake because it just tastes so damn good. And then some of us hate ourselves in the morning for the indulgence, and we wonder why (WHY?) we ate it in the first place, knowing it’s choke full of bad stuff–fat, sugar, calories. Like that chocolate cake, we…
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Poetry Tuesday – The Underbelly of Silence
The underbelly of silence Rests on easily breakable Peace of mind, Which when shattered, Reveals utter quietude, Driving the brain to darkness And insanity. Silence, it seems, Rests too heavy then. Voices stay forever confined Within the bounds Of our unknown parts Of our imaginations. –written in 2002
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Excerpt from Arianna (Unpublished WIP)
The service began at 9:30. As it progressed, familiarity returned in full force. A person might think it would be foreign, like wearing someone else’s broken-in shoes, to return after so many years. The music, the words, the prayers–all were like slipping into a pair of my own old shoes. The sermon nearly caught me…
The Rock at the Bottom is a finalist in the Readers’ Favorite Award Contest!
Short stories & poetry collection now available on Amazon!
