Rim Shot (No. 1: No Free Parking)
He went from floor to floor of the office building with his parking ticket. He had paid the dentist for the cleaning his wife had scheduled for him (against …
The Fiction Writer On Trial
The fiction writer stood, hand on the bible. She was called to the stand, had refused to plead the fifth. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, …
The Fiction Writer’s Poetics
What is a story? The fiction writer said. Everything is a story. What’s not a story? Instead, how to arrive at the story – this is the question we must …
It
We don’t talk about it. Instead, we discuss the weather – gray and humid much of today, thunder showers expected later, lasting throughout the weekend. “We may be glad for …
Small Talk
“I’d be fucked in a rainstorm,” she says. We’re in the car, on our way to dinner. I’m driving, she’s sitting in the front because she gets car sick. In …
The Book Spiral – Jackson, MS/Seattle, WA
“It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like …
Fat and Happy – New Orleans
I was in New Orleans on business, had come from a meeting in St. Petersburg that morning, flew in late evening. I had not been to New Orleans in …
The Shine – New Orleans
Nice shoes, sir, very nice. I bet you I can tell you were you got em. I – Now, c’mon, sir, I am a connoisseur of fine footwear, and I’ll …
Strangers
The morning news feed tries to change the subject, distracting us with finances and football scores, skirting the issue with poverty and war—but we all know death is contagious. That’s …