“Have another stein of mead and grab a randy wench,” Aleric counseled Boom Boom. The noise of the pre-invasion festivities had grown to a deafening pitch, and the field where all the tribe had gathered to fete the warriors on the eve of their next invasion of Rome, was now filled with half-naked, cavorting women and wild-eyed Visigohtic soldiers dressed in battle gear. 

“But I don’t WANT another stein of mead,” …

The dates for the event are July 14th thru 17th and are in Blowing Rock N.C.

We have secured two stunning 5 b/r , 4 bath chalets on a mountain top just 2 miles from the city center with 20 ft soaring ceiling great rooms and are next door to each other, the virtual tour and pix online are a must-see

The cost is $87.00 per room with all taxes, clean up costs, etc. All rooms will be allocated on a first come (deposit) basis, you will get a number and can choose…

In the life I imagine I lived - the one I took in both hands and wrung until my fingernails popped off, not the sedate, back porch, sweet tea life I actually cruised through - I used to get high. And I was rich, so I'd buy this gold standard, senator-quality herb by the trash bag full and host parties at my lake house, dozens of people I pretended to know getting baked and naked and usually injured trying to drive one of my boats in such state.

And I had this wife, Judy or…

Hey, Dad!

He had driven 700 miles to visit his father, this man who was halfway to heaven already, sitting in his nursing home wheelchair murmuring to himself while Music of Your Life played on the portable radio.

He held his hand,  swabbed his crusty lips with a wet paper towel,  tried to get his attention by saying, "Hey Day, can I borrow the car?" then laughed nervously as his father continued to stare at his knees.

All the while, his stepmother looked on, forever…

When Danny had too much to drink his jealousy rose like the head of a venomous snake, hissing and tongue lashing.  “You better back off when my friends are around,” he told Regina. “You acting up like that an’ I’ll see your f*#$ ass out the door next time!”

She phoned her sister Annie, but she wasn’t in. Walked in the cold night rain and waited, crying at the doorstep.  It would take three more years until she made the decision to leave him. 

They were referred to as "Them" and the "Them" referred to the others as "They".  There was no trust between the "Them" and the "They"; there was a hostility that lay underneath all of the body language and verbage.  The "They" belonged, but the "Them" were recent arrivals and not welcomed.  They both spoke a different language, but the "They" outnumbered the "Them"; the "Them" and the "They" were needed to establish the nation whose shore was beckoning to the many who were looking for…

Yea, I growed up in the country, in New York, you know not far from Montgomery town, way yonder with the horses and mules. And now I’m in prison and they say, “Where’s you from?”

And I say, “New York,” and they say, “Oh you a city boy! You a city slicker and knows a lot.”

And I say, “I’m a slicker like you a dickhead”… and then we fight. So now I’m hangin round with the boys from Bensonhurst and they’s real city and maybe when I gets out…

Hickory roots drank gluttonously as the snow melted along the banks of Wake Creek. The water rushed fiercely, stampeding whitely from the mountain. Sheets of ice drifted crystalline, pelted by yellow spores of thawed fungi, loosened suddenly from their moldy grave by Laura’s clumsy and naked feet. She held tightly to the swaddled baby in her arms and chewed her cheek as she waded hip-deep into the freezing water. The stain on her dress would not wash out. But the red cloud between her legs…

It is interesting to consider why some have a "will to live", while others decide it is time to move from this life.

It's quite remarkable, and I believe, a beautiful thing, to make that choice for ourselves.

I am watching my aunt, who originally had little prognosis for improving from a heart attack, fight back to her family, her life, every minute of every day.…

People say I have joie de vivre, Boom Boom thought, as he made a mental account of his distinguishing personal characteristics. I’m popular with the whole tribe, good looking—although not as good looking as my brother, Aleric, damn him--- and I love to garden.  Everyone knows I make the best turnip soup in all of Gaul, and in the summer, my radishes are the reddest in the land, redder even than the August sun, as it sets low in the West.  Boom Boom’s…

We found Lonnie and the girl by the lake, lit by the soft ghost lights Mubarak had strung from the poplars encopsed at the edge of the lawn that ran down from the house to the water, and after the kitsch-raddled frenzy we'd been through indoors, outside here seemed like a small slice of nighttime in heaven, and the air was a nectar, and I'm here to tell you, grab any small moments you can in this life; no telling when Nightmare Man will step from the poplars to change the way that…

Not often, but once every while, I decide it's pajama day.

Pajama day is when I stay dressed in whatever I woke up in, and meander around my place doing pretty much nothing - except what I want.

It could be moving to and from the kitchen with snacks, it could be listening to my beloved tunes while I sit nearby with eyes closed, smiling at the melodies, it could be a day of thinking and…

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s not easy finding out much about the old windmills of East Yorkshire; it is thought that there were once about two hundred of them, around fifty having been identified. One…

“I want you to close your eyes and imagine a single black bird perched on a thin black line.”

Lying lazy on the cool couch in the darkened room, he quietly draws in her practiced voice, opens his mind’s eye and imagines. “The black bird is your anger and…

She knew I was coming for her. She crouched in my cold shadow like David getting ready for the Goliath.

"Yeahh..no, don't think so," she taunted and poke-poke-poked my probing hand with a needle, certain I'd give up like I did all the other times. She darted, dodged, danced and squirmed away each time I reached out for her like a goldfish playing keepaway in her tank.  See, all those other thousand times I reached for a character or tale, it would sidetrack me with internet…

Dejected, Boom Boom sat with his head in his hands, his long straggly locks spilling over his muscular shoulders.  I don’t want to sack Rome.  I want to stay home and mow the lawn.  I hate pillaging and sacking.  I like gardening.  Even if I MUST get my hands dirty.…

After Lonnie told us she wanted some time alone with the girl, Rosczh and I took another meandering lap around, which took us by the dance floor again, and the band was really kicking them out--imagine Lawrence Welk shooting the moon with "Brick House"--and the strobe lights were popping and everyone lurched around half in the bag, via alcohol, buzzers, basuko, whatever the treat and, I swear, seeing some smiling shark bitch lit up in those strobes--it was like watching a creature…