The first time that I saw Zara Kelly she was in The Red Dog, surrounded by a bunch of Hooray Henrys in expensive suits. It was late in the summer of 1978 and I had just started contributing to a magazine called Sailors' World. Back in those pre-email days, you either faxed in your copy (but I didn't yet have a fax machine), you put it in the post (making su...
I'm a writer and I work from home. I am moderately successful. A few years ago, I added a two-car garage with a large room overhead to our house. This allows me a fortress of solitude from which to work. Working from home, along with a chance meeting with a tech-whiz, brought together the elements of an unusual, but fortunate experience. I receive all kinds...
There are things you remember and wish they had never happened. Like being stood up by a girl. Or being clever with a bigger guy and having your ass whipped in front of friends. Things like that. There are also things you'd cough up all your money for to make them un-happen. I am Walter Braun, 39, copywriter, famous in the tiny confines of my profession....
A siren wailed in the near distance; probably on the ring road that wound around his haven in The Village like a tarmac leviathan, bejewelled with pin-points of light in the night, hiding them securely from prying eyes. Enoch paid it no heed and peered through the dense cloud of smoke that served to momentarily obscure the teenage girl from his line of sight...
You never know a woman How much do you know your partner? Even in later years, contrary to popular belief, new things can and do happen. We have been married now for many years, enjoyed each others company, grown together, produced our children and basked in the love of our grandchildren. Without giving too much away, our eldest daughter is thirty five and...
I might as well start at the beginning, many years ago. The first time I ever saw Trish, my beloved wife and lover of several years' standing, was really quite a revealing occasion. Back in those days, I was about 19 or 20, and I usually woke and got up quite early. On this particular sunny spring morning, I was up and about at around 6:00 am. I went down...
The normal disclaimers apply, all those who participate in sexual activities are 18 or older. ***** Ethel and Maggie were doing well, out on the town doing widowed lady stuff, stopping in to have supper with us almost weekly. It seemed to both of us that they were awfully close, always showing simple affection when with us. Nothing untoward, a secret smil...
Our son Tony was at the table doing his science homework, while my wife Gina and I set the table. Tony was a big boy for his age already over six foot. Both Gina and my family were of southern Italian breeding. Any family member rare enough to get near 5 foot 9 was automatically called "Goliath". "Who did I get my height from?" Tony asked. His science book...
"But consorting with these pious elders, chaste dames, and dewy virgins were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame. It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints." -Nathanial Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" *** Cassie knew what the red envelope meant as soon as it fell through the ma...
Here's my entry into the Winter Holidays Contest, albeit there's not too much mention of the holiday season in it. Not until the end anyway. I didn't intend it to be that way when I started, but the thing grew legs and wandered off and went where it wanted. In this one a middle-aged man is seduced by a twenty-something hottie. But the trouble is she's also...