Hal lived a simple life. He lived in his mother’s garage and grew food in a garden and angled for game in the brackish, man-made estuary on Holland Street. He loved to fish. He had to fish. You could usually find him standing on the old, crumbling cobblestone dams with his reel, waiting for theContinue reading “A Guide to Fishing for Freshwater Eels: Strategies & Techniques”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Story of 8
Story of 8 “The teenager of the new generation grew up in a time of nerves. Newspapers screaming headlines of race riots, revolution, earthquakes. And back of it all: speed! Everyone rushing nowhere to get nowhere for no reason. Fast planes, fast cars. It’s a fast life, Inspector. It’s a whirlpool of speed and confusionContinue reading “The Story of 8”
The Active Training Sessions
The Active Training Sessions ended with the summer and Jacob hadn’t learned a goddamn thing. Ninja skills dulled. He would meet an attack with clumsy, uncertain moves. Hesitation begets paralysis. Hanging around deserted shopping malls (they’re easy to break into if you possess what old grandfathers referred to as gumption) watching mildew grow in patternsContinue reading “The Active Training Sessions”
The Found Tape
On October 24, 1993, while walking home from school, I found an old audio cassette by the roadside. It was a TDK 90 minute tape. The label on side 2 had been peeled off. About eight inches of tape were tangled and hanging out of the cassette. I managed to wind the tape back upContinue reading “The Found Tape”
The Crooner
The Crooner sat alone in his dressing room. He’d draped an old, stained tablecloth over the mirror and had unscrewed most of the light-bulbs around the frame. Dressing room lights were always too bright and the mirrors captured too many hard memories. He wore his life on his face. He lifted a pint of whiskeyContinue reading “The Crooner”
Recently Published Stuff
“Song of Squandered Promise” at Still Here Magazine (pg. 164) “Baby Box Turtles at the Bottom of a Vodka Bottle” at Blood+Honey Exacting Clam No. 19 Winter 2025 Dada Issue “Unspeakable Dan” at Yellow Mama Webzine “The Car Crash They Saw” at The Broken Teacup “A Path Through the Dandelions” at The Argyle Literary MagazineContinue reading “Recently Published Stuff”
Imagining the Ordinary
It started with the teabags, but before that. It’s hard to be certain when an adventure really begins but if I had to stick a pin into a point and make a mark, it wouldn’t be with the worms, it would be with the teabags. Memories bleed into dreams. Or is it the other wayContinue reading “Imagining the Ordinary”
Adipocere
The story begins…. Becky stood on the rocky shore listening to the edges of the ocean. The lap and scatter of small seaweed-laden waves. She’d hoped the sudden change in environment would loosen the choking, unremitting clench of her life. Therapy wasn’t going well. Her therapist (Nancy) suggested this trip. She (Nancy) said that gettingContinue reading “Adipocere”
Barbara Payton at the Purple Dandelion
And a disembodied narrator says: He was in an LA club called The Purple Dandelion. It was 1967. Longhairs were dancing to the elastic music of The Chocolate Watch Band. He was sitting at the bar between a grubby little man who smelled of the street and Barbara Payton, who smelled of the street andContinue reading “Barbara Payton at the Purple Dandelion”
Hollywood
“Before we start—I’m sorry, toots—what’s your name again?” “Beekeeper.” “Okay, Mavis. I just want to tell you that I’m not gonna talk about my marriage. Y’know. To you-know-who…” “Banana?” “Because I’m not here to provide material for the gossip rags. It’s nobody’s goddamn business. Hedda Hopper can go pound sand up her ass—pardon my French.”Continue reading “Hollywood”
