[The first installment of another serial. Written a long time ago...] "You were out too late last night Kathleen," her mother told her as she entered the kitchen. "Was that why you missed breakfast?" "Oh mom, it wasn't too late and I was just over the Dayton's," Kathy said, brushing her lengthy dark hair. "Paul [...]

Billy got a pool cue and shined it up nice, / Learned to powder his hands and chaulk up right. / After years of planning he barged into the hall. / "Step aside boys," he shouted. "I'm better'n you all." [...]

The kid enters the diner / with intent to commit robbery / for a few bucks at least / he figured. [...]

I have rarely found editorials to be moving and thought provoking on a literary basis. The New York Times' Behind the Aurora Borealis is so worthy. It is worthy enough to be discussed as an educational piece -- to be used as an example of not just good writing, but as an example of writing [...]

It was a warm night. It was a night with a soft breeze carrying the smells and sounds of summer. It was a night for boys. "Go wash your hands." Upon their father's command, the two boys raced on up the stairs and into the bathroom, trying to wash their hands at the same time. [...]

Hello, / Can I ask you something? / Can I write to you / Whenever I am feeling lonely? / Can I send you a card / Even when there is no holiday? [...]

Dear _____, I now know that when you love someone you want to always be nice and kind and helpful, helping with the smallest of things as well as the biggest of things. When in love with someone you want to share everything; the joys and the sorrows, comforting as much as you can whenever [...]

How am I doing? I am good, bad, focused, scared, aware, shaky and at times happy, but sometimes suicidal, and always, in general, perplexed. I cry a lot. In my car in a blinding downpour on the highway beside two tractor trailers with the deafening roar of the rain, the road and static on the [...]

Have your fancy tickled at Studio 360 by this Haran Ellison interview. Harlan Ellison Over the last 50 years, he's written hundreds of short stories ("A Boy and His Dog"), several novels and movies and worked on TV shows like "The Man From UNCLE," the original Star Trek, and "The Outer Limits." But don't call [...]

"Where do you get your ideas?" Have you ever heard that question before? Sure. We all have. Quite frankly, I never understood how a writer wannabe could possibly ask such a question -- if you are not chock full of ideas why would you want to write? Well, while I get plot and story ideas [...]

There is something that frightens me and I know not what it is. The closest I have come to meeting this fear was once in a dream. In a typical childhood fear-dream, I was laying in bed in my room at the top of the stairs and someone, some dark form, was coming, sneaking, up [...]

A cool breeze / A rain shower / A snow fall / You remind me [...]

I remember you, / your auburn hair that / caught the wind and / carried me along / as we danced in / the woods, singing [...]

I don't know if / you can change / my world. [...]

I've lost it, he said with such a sadness. / What, I asked. / A thought. Not just any thought, oh no. [...]

You hear about it / off handedly, / oh by the way, / in the briefest of mentions; [...]

Harold didn't see the ground coming up toward him, he felt it. Only after a second of disorientation and the reminder of gravity and pain did he realize that he was face first in the dirt, the feet of the cause of his predicament walking away. He tried hard to prevent his tears. He was [...]

There came a knock at the door, / "Who is it?" / There came a cry from the dark, / "The Constitution!" [...]

After a long drag on his cigarette Chase stared at its large glowing head and blew his breath over it, exciting its redness with an array of spark and ash, then flicked it up at the underside of the overpass above him, causing a burst of hot red rain to shower down on him and [...]

A path is inviting, I do not follow, / And I die a little inside. / An injustice occurs, I do not speak, / And I die a little inside. [...]