The bus pulled into the sleepy hamlet just as the sun peeked over the horizon. A young woman sat shivering on the bench in the dusty light. Her thin jacket had done little to keep her warm through the last few hours of the morning. Rubbing her hands together, she glanced around, her eyes wide …

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The dream envelops me in its otherworldly embrace again, slipping my subconscious smoothly into its soft folds like a familiar lover, just as it has countless times over the decades.  Like the numerous instances before, the hazy curtain of night in my mind’s eye—with twinkling pinpricks of ancient radiance scattered over the satin expanse of …

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The summer of 1984 marked a turning point for me, a period of transition that highlights the last real summer of my childhood, my thoughts and feelings held precariously balanced between my adolescent and my teenage years.  It exemplifies everything that was wonderful and boring about childhood, combining pulse-pounding moments of excitement, delight and near-terror …

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This one goes WAY back.  Back in 1991, when I was a wee lad in 12th grade, I entered an Essay Contest through the Northern Appalachian Writers Guild with the unlikely topic of “Animal Antics”. The theme was pretty simple: tell a story, in 500 words or more, about a day in the life of an animal/creature, as …

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