My mother was admitted to the hospital in my hometown where she still lived. A call from her doctor meant that I had to fly out immediately. The advantage -- perhaps the only advantage -- of traveling as much as I do is elite status on airlines. After a quick phone call and burning a substantial number of accumulated miles, I managed to make it from Californ...
The margaritas had taken a strong hold on the trio and their language, of course, grew as salty as the rims of the glasses. Tammy, Deena and Allie, all close friends in high school so many years ago, had decided on a whim to get together on a foggy Thursday evening and catch up on old times. It was agreed before the tequila got rolling that it was nearly sin...
SELF ISOLATION By Dawn R When the COVID virus hit I had a decision to make. As a writer I am very lucky in that I can work anywhere. Anywhere that is, that has light and power and good access to the internet. I am too married to my computer to consider resorting to pen and ink. Being too married to my job and my computer is also what led, at least in part,...
Chapter 4 – A Jedi's Resilience That evening and the next day for Jacen was a mixture of exhausting physical training and passionate sex with Star. It seemed to him that the two of them did it everywhere – in the shallows of the river, out in the open by the fire at night, in both their shelters... Star was seemingly insatiable. She blamed her voracious sex...
The ride into work the next morning was vibrant. The crisp morning air was better than ten cups of coffee. There was just enough salt in the breeze to remind me that we live close to the Oregon coast. The oak and cottonwood trees were beginning to change colors and the Douglas firs were their usual fragrant selves. I pulled into my customary parking lot in t...
The midday sun is full and bright, giving a sparkle to every tiny drop of spray as our small boat lifts and dips with each slight swell of the ocean. I close my eyes to hear better the quiet lapping of the waves against the wooden prow. The spray casts a salty hint into the summer wind that I catch as I breathe in time to the swaying of our little boat. I...
In a family where the women were strong with The Sight, Cassie was a child of destiny. While in the womb she was visited by the strongest of the old women who would place their hands on her mother's distended stomach and wait for movement. There was always shock, always awe. To a woman, they proclaimed that this child would be the most accurate seer the fami...
"Do you, Robert Sebastian, take these women, Zoe and Victoria, as your lawfully wedded wives, to have and to hold from this day forward, to love, cherish, and protect, for better or worse, in sickness and health, in poverty and wealth, for as long as you three shall live?" Zoe's son Indra officiated the wedding for his mother and sister to this man, despite...
This started as the introductory scene for a novella twenty times longer. I gutted it because I didn't like where it made up its mind to go. Afterward, I realized this was a complete story—beginning, middle, and an ending—on its own, albeit a very short one. Which isn't to say that we won't see Glenn again in a serialized set of stories of which this would...
By Adam Gunn Following Wes's departure, Cheryl lazed. She considered returning to the beach, perhaps the pool, did she want another drink? But inactivity won over the thought of animation, she lounged on her rumpled bed, allowing the sensation of ephemeral contentment to bathe her, letting her mind drift. She'd booked this trip to Ixchel, a scandalous reso...