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Category: Uncategorized

Life, or something like it.

Being a writer, I understand the need for universiality, that feeling that the movie’s main message somehow applies to the lives of every family member. “Life As a House?” No problem. For the divorced couple it is about reconcilation. For a terminal or chronic patient, hope and living in the face of death. Teenagers? The…
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Dating in the new millennium. (Or….Why I Predict the Human Race Will Disappear Within Three Generations)

So. There I was, sitting with my daughter in the restaurant, chatting. I mentioned something about something incidental and, like sometimes happens, the girl behind the bar chimed in. And that was okay. I’d talked to her many times before. After all, I’ve only been going to her restaurant since it opened. I’ve always enjoyed…
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Non-Fiction

Places I’ve Written For Currently Appearing: Eclectica Magazine: “Finding Machu Picchu” – an essay about my life-long friendship with the writer Maude Files Zimmer. BayouLife Magazine: My current “regular” writing gig, where I cover anything from food and the arts to movie stars and musicians. Other Publications: The Atlasphere: An online community and magazine for fans of…
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When the good people of Cranston, Texas, learn that a hometown boy has been killed in Iraq, they set about mounting a proper welcome for their fallen hero. But nobody thinks to ask the boyʼs reclusive father if such a memorial service is wanted, much less welcome. Not one to make waves, Joe Morton goes…
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Billy Bradshaw is just a boy of twelve when a well-meaning juvenile court judge sentences him to community service at the Liberty Street Home for the Elderly and Infirm. Thrown to the care of six aging Bohemians, Billy’s summer takes an unexpected turn when a new administrator arrives at Liberty Street with plans to rid…
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Three Days in the Quarter. Bloggin’ Mardi Gras.

Laissez les bon temps rouler! It’s kind of hard to explain Mardi Gras in New Orleans to someone who has never been here during the five final days of Carnival season, commonly referred to (albeit incorrectly) as “Mardi Gras.” Mardi Gras is, in fact, right this very minute only 34 minutes old. It is the…
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Kids say the darndest things.

I’m a big believer in decadence. So after spending an entire day largely either naked or in my PJ’s watching my West WIng dvd set, I decided to fix a double cup of hot chocolate while watching Celebrity Poker while my oven self-cleans. We’ll divert here for a moment because I think it’s a great…
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It’s the little things, ya know?

I have a friend that, in the past month, has made my week twice–simply by sharing with me a bit of humor she found in the oddest places. I’m not talking about irony. I refer instead to genuine humor. Things people created to be funny that are actually, surprisingly, funny. The first came two days…
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An American Christmas Carol.

Christmas has always been a very odd time for me and–by extension–my family. Since we hold no particular religious attachment to the holiday, I’ve always marveled at the way Christians choose to celebrate the birth of their savior. (I can’t fathom, for instance, Objectivists erecting trees and buying gifts, even for themselves, on Ayn Rand’s…
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The Game of Life as a metaphor for living.

Since Colleen was off work tonight, we decided to give the kids their presents tonight. Tomorrow evening, after she gets off work, they’ll do presents again with the extended family on her side, and then the next day with their dad and his family. I always marvelled at Christmas when I was a kid. A…
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