I cast about frantically but there was only darkness. The darkness swirled, it eddied. I whipped around as I heard something howl. No words but the howl had meaning. Pain. Something in terrible pain had just howled. I still didn’t see anything, just darkness. Sometimes more darkness and less darkness…

Excellent article, especially the point about responsiblity. I have that same thought about the implications and inferences people take from my actions or words. I have no control over those yet they often try to make me responsible for them.

A little less than an hour later, Rick reached Waste Dump 7, the western-most of the Zone’s dumps. In this dump they’d found most of the materials, many of them proscribed, for the house they’d built. Rick knew the alleys and streets of the dump as well as those around…

“You, with the baby. Stop!” The sharp command moved me out of my reverie quickly and I focused on the pair of cops. Officially they were agents of the Committee for Zone Security with the title of Protectors and it was true the CZS protected the Zone from incursions by…

Booted feet pounded outside, announcing the intruders, presaging the booming voice. Amber and Rick shivered but in response to the voice or in sympathy with the abused ground, they did not know. “By the power of the Committee for Reproductive Compliance, you are ordered to open the door!” …

I originally wrote this 8 years ago on Blogger but I still find it relevant. Despite the fact that my children are 10 and 7, I still considered myself a new parent. Why? Good question. Mostly because I am too busy thinking I knew it all to learn how to…

Tasked with uncovering a traitor, a singing spy makes an unlikely friend, meets a new one, and learns the price of success. A shudder racked the spy, perched high in a tall tree, as he surveyed his target. Master Revas had not lied, nor even exaggerated — this would be…