A few weeks before the Fourth of July, I was curled up on my couch, enjoying the soft light of the patio through my sliding doors, ready...

I was club hopping with my BFF, Jeannie, when I found myself, in deep trouble! This was the 1970’s and it was quite popular to go to a...

“Titles matter little. We are the children of our works.” —Don Quijote de la Mancha     Madrid,  23 de junio, 1656, Stilo Novo          ...

(content warning: this story includes references to domestic violence.) As a cradle Catholic, I always knew you needed your faith to do...

1 My knees and hands were bleeding and hurt like the dickens, but I was still holding onto the seashell I had picked up from the darkened...

It’s been over a year of darkness, and I am longing for the light of a new dawn. The memories of what brought me to this place are so...

I paid a goodbye visit to Windburn Barn figuring a bunch of college kids would have rented it by now, but there were no cars in the...

“A mother who has had a baby in the hospital should insist on keeping him with her 24 hours a day. Unwrap the baby, keep him in your bed,...

(Content warning: this story contains sensitive material related to child sexual abuse. Please read at your own discretion.) The music...

My father had moments of crystalline clarity in which he would say something that would stop me in my tracks, making me pause to catch my...

Willie sat on a week's old newspaper on the corner of Michigan and Adams, across from the Art Institute in downtown Chicago. It was a...

When Dad was dying the nurses bound his hands in yards of Ace bandages so he couldn’t pull out the life supports. The Buckeye Bomber, a...

“Insane? I was perfectly sane. I knew that the best place for a genius philosopher to hide out was an asylum. Switzerland, no less. Cool...

How can somebody you don't know look at you with such disdain in their eyes? They couldn't put themselves in your shoes, because they...

My stepmother’s name was Alice, but I called her Malice because she haunted my childhood and was the evilest person I ever knew—and for...

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Ellen and I counted 13 muskrats as we walked around Lake Bennett that late February mild...

Becca stood by the edge of the bridge, the oppressive heat of the day finally giving in to a light breeze that chilled her bare arms. The...

Had it not been for Covid-19 forcing everyone inside, I’m not sure my plan would have worked but looking back, I'm glad I acted on that...

Herculaneum, 79 AD (Back in the 1980s, over three hundred carbonized skeletal remains were discovered submerged along the coastline of...

Using Granny’s ancient knife -- the handle worn thin and the blade sharp as a razor -- I sliced big ruby tomatoes. Drops of red juice and...