« Oh My! The Phenom of Facebook, George Takei This blogging business has made me a lot more aware of certain things, such as the fact that the music industry is, collectively, a big schoolyard bully, blustering about and threatening us with swirlies in order to extort the lunch money of lowly writers by way of its absurd "Mother May I?" approach to quoting even a few words of lyrics. Now, I'm not talking about actual dis...

“He would never forget those hands.” Frowning, Karen crossed out the sentence — too ambiguous. She shifted nervously in the waiting room chair, trying to concentrate on her creative writing assignment to “craft a complete, unequivocal story using six words.” “Screw you and your impossible assignment.” Probably wouldn’t fly. Eventually, just one line remained: “Relief came, then tears: ‘It’s benign.’” Perfect. With a wan s...

“That won’t fly.”“What won’t?” she asked.“From the third line on,” he replied, reading over her shoulder as she typed. “A story full of obscenities won’t ever win a writing contest.”Exasperated, she considered how to sanitize her micro-fiction entry, a gritty drama rife with blue language. Then inspiration struck, and she believed her ingenious editing would yield a surefire winner.“All the profanity’s been bleeped out. W...

“I’m sorry.”“That’s it, you’re sorry?”“What more do you want from me? Yes, I screwed up, and I apologized. Can we please just go to bed?”“You screwed up all right.”“Oh, c’mon, are you going to blow this all out of proportion? I told you, nothing happened. We exchanged a few e-mails, big deal.”“E-mails containing naked pictures, so yeah, I’d say it is a big deal.”“But they didn’t mean anything!”“So then why’d you send them...

Okay, so we’re supposed to write this ninety-nine word story and — well, it doesn’t hafta be exactly ninety-nine words, it can be less — but anyway, I don’t know what to write about and it’s due tomorrow, so I’m thinking maybe I could tell about the time Grandma took me to tea at a fancy hotel and they served strawberries and cream mixed with maple syrup, but I don’t know if I can describe it in ninety-nine words, it was...

Even though I don’t consider myself to be a perfectionist, I’ve learned that others hold a different view. My daughter has admonished me for it, my mother has teased me about it, and when the instructor of my clay class said there’s one in every group, all eyes turned toward me. Two things should be pointed out from the start: 1. This tendency, which I will grudgingly admit may (does) indeed exist, extends only to profess...

The instructions said to wait, so she waited. It was something she did quite well; Lord knows she'd had plenty of practice. Sometimes it seemed she did little else besides wait.Just a few more minutes now. But how many minutes, hours, days, years of her life had she wasted waiting, hoping, praying — all for naught? Enough! Today it would stop. Today she would move forward, no matter what. Her phone played a marimba to cel...

It's a dire diagnosis for our intrepid heroine... "We don't see you in here often, Maggie. What seems to be the trouble today?" "Well, doctor, its this darn apostrophe, thats how it started but things has got alot worse in the past couple days. I should of came in sooner. I know." "What exactly do you mean, 'this darn apostrophe'? I don't see any apostrophe." "Precisely my point! It went missing where I want it, than show...

Collected 'poems' about one of life's basic needs... Inkling I sort of need to pee Urgency The urge is growing increasingly... urgent Realization No restroom is within walking distance! Desperation I can barely hold it now Relief A warm contentment washes over me Regret I wish I'd found a bathroom

Max was excited. Bubbie was coming over, and Mommy said she was bringing a surprise for him! He could barely wait to find out what it might be. He thought hard. Maybe it would be a toy truck or a new ball — or maybe even some Legos. Whatever it was, Max knew it would be great, because Bubbie always picked the best presents. After what seemed like hours and hours, Max finally heard someone climbing the steps. It had to be...

"Honey, I'm ho-ome," Matt warbled as he entered the kitchen and tossed his keys into a bowl on the table. Loosening his tie, he made for the bedroom, where he expected to find his wife changing from her work clothes.Instead he met her in the dining room, glaring at him from behind a laptop computer through eyes red from crying. She knew. To deny or rationalize the affair would insult her intelligence and make matters wors...

Some words that we believe exist, really don't. Our family dinner that Sunday held a certain amount of importance. It would be the first time in ages that we'd all be together at a time besides a major holiday — and the first time my two older sisters would meet my boyfriend, who by then was already an unofficial fiancé. Their opinion wasn't a deal breaker by any means, but I hoped they would like him as much as my parent...

Some words that don't exist, really ought to.   "The word is 'peppier,' pronounced 'pep-ee-ay'," announced the spelling bee moderator."Definition, please," replied the entrant, launching by rote into the set of questions she had been taught to ask."One who grinds spice onto a diner's food at a restaurant.""What is the origin?""'Peppier' is faux French.""Faux French?""Yes, that is, it is not truly a French word, but rather...

Wind-torn from their perchTenacious leaves stay aloft'Til fate intervenes

  This story contains mature themes * * * Sam was startled — and annoyed — by the blaring of a car horn while he sat parked along with a thousand other drivers on Interstate 5. What exactly did the genius expect to accomplish by honking here when the logjam was well out of sight, probably several miles ahead? He shook his head. Not a local, that’s for sure, he reflected knowingly. Washingtonians, especially those who live...