My grandmother is standing next to me, looking down at her own grave.
She is pointing to the filigreed bronze lawn marker embedded into the ground. Her birth date on the left, under her own name in block letters, across from the blank space to be filled in; the words Beloved Mother beneath it all.

It doesn’t say Beloved Mother and Grandmother ( Read more... )

The Begining of The End,
or It's All Just a Matter of Time

1am
The words trip over her tongue.
They wash out into the space between them
Hitting her target slightly left of the center.
She’s smiling;
Blowing hot air over her fingernails
and buffing them on her lapel.
It’s a brush-back pitch,
A challenge,
A dare,
A psych out,
She’s redefining their boundaries.

( Read more... )

Down The Road And Back Again

I’m 12 or maybe 14: The screen door slams behind me a second before there is the sound of something shattering inside the house. I run at full speed out of the back door nearly tripping on the wooden steps, so much of me wishing, even then, that I could grow wings and lift off the ground and fly as far away as I could. I ( Read more... )

A Pirate's Life for Me

I have this awful habit of jumping on sinking ships.

I end up as an eternal castaway. A diaspora of one; a nomadic lone wolf moving through life with all of my material wealth compacted into the space of a single steamer trunk that I grasp onto for dear life while trying to keep my head above water.
Marking the years by the ( Read more... )

Just breathe

She whispers it to herself. It’s a worry stone, a call to mindfulness.

She flicks ash off her fingertips; blows smoke into the air.

She needs a place to hide; thinks the pain in her shoulder is a pinched nerve.

She is given permission to seek refuge in the beat up beige and blue, faded but still mostly functional, Ford Conquest parked ( Read more... )

I got an email notification thattherealljidolis starting up again! I am so in!

I only ever got to do the "final" season and it legitimately changed my life. It's returned right as I was trying to get back into a regular writing habit so, you know, it's obviously a sign.

Coming back to this journal feels like entering an enchanted dust covered attic, a long ( Read more... )

Charles Bukowsi once wrote “If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don’t do it.”

I was totally inspired by the prompt for LJ Idol this week so I’m kind of shocked to be hours away from the posting deadline with about three half-finished stories and a strong desire to take a ( Read more... )

Baby This Will Only End In Tragedy

You meet me in the park at midnight and in the darkness when we see the stars you say, “See. I told you that they were there all along.” But the skeptic in me tells you, “You only see them because you want to, because you have been told to.”

When you left, I used to pile the extra pillows next to me on the bed ( Read more... )

Greetings From Camp NaNoWriMo,

Cabins were assigned today. There are 11 other participants in my cabin and one of them is writing a horror novel but so far I am the only one who’s posted on the message board.

I am super excited about the live write-ins though! The first one was today and they even read and talked about one of my comments.

It’s an Open ( Read more... )

Sounds Like A Punk Band

I’d been sleeping on Adam and Becky’s couch for about a month when they invited me to Music and Mayhem an annual three day free punk-rock music festival that was invitation only. The exact location is always a secret until only days before the event. Meaning you could only get there if you knew someone else who knew how to ( Read more... )