By: Gaither Stewart Professor Emiliano Madero liked to profess publicly that he felt he was in the midst of an epic battle between the two gods of ancient Mexico: Quetzalcoatl, the hero–founder of agriculture and industry, and Tezcatlipoca, the ubiquitous…
By: Jeffrey Miller The day Emily finally got around to boxing up her late husband’s clothes to donate to Goodwill he broke her heart one last time. For months, she painstakingly hung onto them as though this simple act would guarantee…
By: William T. Hathaway I’m an ad designer in N.ew York — I like it and am good at it. I’ve always loved beauty and try to bring some of it into every ad I design. But my love of…
By: Michael C. Keith There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory. –– Josh Billings Billy-John Calhoun saddled up his horse, Rickets, in the corral of his windblown homestead north of Ashby, Nebraska, and rode it…
By: Steve Slavin Almost everything I know about women I learned from Bonnie. Although she was just 21 – two years my junior – she already knew more than most people learn in a lifetime. Bonnie was kind of pretty,…
By: William J. Watkins, Jr. For Garland Breazeale, his garden patch was a refuge. An Eden prior to the Fall. But on recent Saturday mornings, before the sun began its climb up the eastern sky, the patch would change. Garland had…
By: Clive Aaron Gill Martha steered her pickup truck down the steep road from Valley Center towards the Escondido High School bus yard. Dawn spread its pink-rose rays over morning clouds, softening the San Diego mountain peaks. She hunched her…
By: Michael C. Keith What you wear to the grave is always safe from criticism. –– Sander Howling Alison asked her 81 year-old spouse what clothes he wanted to wear at his wake. “Huh? That’s a weird thing to say….
‘Hazard of Shadows’ which is the book two of Chronicles of the Goblin King series by Mike Phillips has recently been released. While the author and the publishers boast to thrill you with the story, we bring to you excerpt from…
By: Gaither Stewart In my favorite place near the front window with the light from the street over my right shoulder I am reading an essay by Natalia Ginzburg when out of the corner of my eye I register a…