“I never feast on time travelers,” the Count told his future guests, when he invited them to dinner. “They leave a funny aftertaste.”

He can’t believe what’s happened to the land of ‘milk and honey,’ a nickname his Grandpa Tom used to call California. But ever higher taxes have taken their toll. Junior no longer owns what remained of the farm that’s been in his family since the 1930’s and he’s packed everything onto the only possession left, their truck.  Slowly,…

“Come, gather ‘round kids,” Grandpa called. “Your mama says you got time for one more story before bed.” Nine children scramble for a spot closest to the old man’s rocking chair; the best seat in the house when he’s not in it. They are immediately quiet as they wait for him to begin. “In the…

Originally, I wanted to title this piece, “Shit Cops Say,” but it’s still a bit to serious for that yet… As I was exiting a store late yesterday morning, I saw a young man beating on a frail older man. Later, I learned that the man is 79-years-old, five-eleven and 160 pounds, while the younger,…

The cabin looked as if built from miniature logs and moss, blown up to scale and dropped in the middle of the Redwood forest. Joey thought he’d found his heaven as he searched the deep woods around it. “Perfect,” he smiled as he pushed the door open to reveal an empty single room interior. Joey…

Unfortunately, I didn’t know Aunt Bernie, as my wife and her family calls her, as well as I would have like to, but I do find it important to acknowledge her life. She’s the wife of E.G. Conklin, the older brother of Mary’s dad, Don. What I do know about her is that she was…

After reading writer H.R.R. Gorman’s story ‘Food Should be Silent,’ I got a touch of inspiration — albeit closer to home… If my hand’s weren’t so full, I would plug my ears. The squealing of the Dungeness crab is nearly more than I can take. It’s so loud that even the dogs  heard them from…

A neo-noir dystopian (NND) film is a twisted and very dark point of view in a movie about a place or time in which everything is unpleasant. It can sometimes be a genre within a genre, which sets the movie apart from other forms of films. The day after I learned two more of my…

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” is a misquote based on a passage from ‘The Mourning Bride,’ a play by William Congreve. But Franklin wasn’t thinking about that as Satan stabbed him from behind with his pitchfork, forcing him into the pit of screaming tortured souls, while carrying the clay jar of water.…

He was the quiet one. It wasn’t because he was shy, rather it was because he’d rather watch what was going on and being said than anything else. That’s how I remember my high school classmate Tom Anderson, who was born in Crescent City, California, June 18, 1960, but passed away April 18, at his home…