The place Christopher Poutine wanted to take Jack Kinzer was a vacant lot. “It’ll be worth your while,” he had promised. Sure; overgrown grass, dandelions and a broken chain-link fence. Somebody else’s property. He felt a headache coming on as they left their Uber. He had so much work to do back at the office. […]
Writing through the chaos
On this first day of autumn, I am starting off the week with grief, anger and stress about the world’s escalating spiral down into the depths of ashes. I am mourning the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of my personal all-time heroes as a feminist, a woman and someone who works in the legal […]
Short Fiction – Defiant Hemlock #5: A promise from a criminal
Jack Kinzer escaped the courthouse, reveling in the cool air outside. He hung around the benches by the street and lit a cigarette. Blessed nicotine infiltrated his senses. The meeting with Judge Gallant had gone as well as he would have expected. She begrudgingly acquiesced to the set-over after learning of their arrangement. It was […]
Amid the haze, a sense of taut calm
Not too much to report on the writing front. I am trying to increase my submission quota but I am working on some longer stories so it is slow going. And my state, Oregon, is on fire this past week so it’s been hard to focus on much of anything. The above picture was yesterday’s […]
Short Fiction – Defiant Hemlock #4: Jocks, Gods, Emo Boys and Nerds
ADA Flex Fisher waited for Judge Gallant to return from her bathroom break. Beside him, Jack Kinzer seemed deep in contemplation of the judge’s Ravenswing Pub poster. Flex noticed that the other man was wearing mismatched socks. Flex passed a hand through his close-cropped blonde hair and shrugged his muscular shoulders. They may have taken […]
Short Fiction – Defiant Hemlock #3: Justice, Not Truth
Too many female judges went hard because others expected them to be soft. Something about what was between their legs, Judge Leigh Gallant supposed. But she didn’t care. They shouldn’t be looking at her legs; they shouldn’t even be looking at her robe. Judge Gallant was soft. But not in the ways they thought. Judge […]
Short Fiction – Defiant Hemlock #2 – A Proposition
The courtroom was stuffy. Ventilation wasn’t great in this old building, one of the oldest in the town of Defiant Hemlock. Bodies massed in the gallery. It smelled like unwashed armpits and desperation. Jack Kinzer took his seat in the jury box. The defense attorneys all gathered here. They were talking shop, laughing. Jack balanced […]
Short Fiction – Defiant Hemlock #1: The Man in the Mirror
I’m starting a new series for the blog only, a daily drabble set in the same universe. A drabble is a short piece that is 100 words; some stories may be longer, but I’ll keep to about 100 words for each. I’ll keep it going for about a month, longer if the mood takes me. […]
Putting projects on the back burner to chase that elusive discipline
I’ve decided I have way too many projects going on so I have to make some more choices. I’m not completely happy with my photo ebook concept as a way to display my photography. I think it needs more tweaking. I’m going to spend some time looking at my archive of six years and organizing […]
The oddness of recognizing a birthday in a rather dark year
It’s my birthday today and to be perfectly honest, all the “happy birthday” wishes feel rather surreal, because I’ve never felt more grim and hopeless about our future as a country than I do today. I took a few days off work as my birthday gift to myself and I thought I’d catch up on […]
