I recently re-read the monumental epic novel “East of Eden.” The first sentence: "The Salinas Valley is in Northern California." Who gets away with using such a generic sentence to open a novel? John fuckin' Steinbeck. My neighborhood. Mount Tamalpais…

Alice was so tired , she curled her bare feet up and stuffed her entire five foot two inches into the old theater seat. Glad to be in the dark, she could barely keep her eyes open, and she had…

Vince sat in third period College and Career, along with twenty-five other tenth grade students. The stuffy air was becoming breathable thanks to Mister Galbraith's recent installation of an air purifier. "I want us to understand the very real difference…

[story continues] Outside the airport the ocean air shocked Amelia's skin. In one short week in the jungle she'd lost her immunity to seaside air. Taxis and Ubers whizzed by but she was faced with another way women pay more…

Vince was happy on his way to school, walking with his dog, Captain, at his side. As they followed a path through Glen Canyon, Captain ran ahead to sniff dirt mounds freshly dug up by gophers. Vince relaxed as he…

So many things in life need a specific setting. If you’re getting surgery, you really want to be in a sterile environment; most people have to drive aways on purpose to sit in front of a robust campfire in a…

[not fiction today] Happiness needs a setting. That makes me stop and think. Images of Hawaii or the Seychelles promise us happiness. Relaxing without a care. Drinking strangely named cocktails without a hangover. Coupling up joyfully. Occasionally frolicking toddler are…

At first, Emma believed that Nicole had it all – an exotic degree (in medieval French) from Wellesley, a college even she had heard of. Nicole's father was a physics professor and brought the family all over the world when…

I avoid sugar. But lately, I've needed glazed donuts....poisonous sugary donuts . And here's my theory: I've entertained, lately, a fear of slowing down. And sugar speeds me up. The more time I spend with myself alone at my writing…

Only a hero returns with the truth, Perseus told himself. How the hell was he to go about cutting off the head of Medusa?--Medusa who defended herself by instantly transforming into stone all who set eyes upon her. On her…

During the Crusades peasants and other unregarded humans were regularly kidnapped and put into the armies of the Knights Templar, as the medieval equivalent of cannon fodder. It took a long, long time to even get to Jerusalem from, say,…