i've been listening to a podcast "Earwitness' about a crime - a shooting of a deputy sheriff - that ended up with an innocent man on death row. The story takes place in and around Birmingham, where I grew up.…

It always seemed like such a cliche when you'd hear the older generation at

It was hard at that point to believe anything a medical professional said, because each of them had been wrong for years. Until I was losing my ability to walk, no one did what they should have done long ago,…

My mother was taught to be afraid of thunderstorms. The explanation she gave me was that one of her foster mothers (she had 3 throughout her turbulent childhood) told her to get under the bed whenever one came through. She…

In 1969 when I was 18, I moved out of my mother's home into my first apartment with my three month old son. I'd lived with my mom while I waited for my baby to be born and for the…

Complaining about an experience flying a budget airline is like complaining about a stomach ache after eating an all-you-can-eat buffet. But I'm still going to do it because this one was my rock bottom. It wasn't the 5-hour delay that…

I couldn't tell if she was having a panic at

“Goddamn, Jordan. Tell me again why we love this job? This day after day shit on fires for, how many weeks now? Three?” I ask, as I lug the 50+ pounds of fire hose in my pack up the mountain-goat-steep…

Snapshot #3 Sunday, February 21, 2016 THE TALL MAN To the right of my desk, on the white wooden window sill pinned at shoulder level, is an 8 X 12 color photo of my deceased brother Richard. Richard Laurence Baron.…

(Hi, there! Just want to preface this by telling you it’s a study for a character I’m exploring for a new novel project. I don’t usually write in the first person and I’m a weak author of interiority, so I’m…

Mostly, I feel I can navigate the world. I can decide what time to get up (and, if I wake too early, there’s ambien); I can decide what time to go to bed, although my decision is usually 11 p.m.…