We ride up in the company truck, an uncomfortable ride in the boxed-in cab, the empty cargo bay banging away, carrying only a toolbox and a bag of wigs. We have two stores to visit, one in Napa, the other in Sonoma and both include a change of clothing. Richard gets me started by having me undress the two women mannequins in the storefront’s main window but instructs me to leave their blouses on because he doesn’t want to…

The plate was set down before me, royalty in his throne by the window, looking out at a kingdom of skyscrapers across the river.

Fragrant steam rose from the cut of prime rib, the centerpiece of the dish, igniting in me an olfactory response that coursed through my nervous system, causing chain reaction bursts of chemicals at every synapse in my ravenous…

There was an earwig on my toothbrush this morning, its slender, brown, segmented body slinking up the handle coming to rest on the damp bristles.

It looked at me, its pincers tapping out and arthropodic code that said, Fuck off, bro, this is my kick it spot now.

In my head, earwig’s gots…

Seek out your passion, and you shall be happy.

Well, I have found my passion and happiness is not the word I would use to describe how I feel.

I’m terrified, lost in a maze where each dead end is at the end of a longer, more hopeful path than the last, and it is unclear whether my prize is at the…

"I just wanna say that I'm thankful for having you in my life."

Strong man that he is over the last twenty-one minutes, nope twenty-two, he feels himself weaken to the point of tears and now with this last song, he can't help but reach for the phone.

"Deborah, thank you so much."

"I love you, Daddy."

Eight hundred miles away but joined together through the power of technology we restart the video, sitting in silence over the phone for twenty-three minutes and…

Prompt #2:  My Space

Describe your ideal writing space.  Compare/contrast it with your actual writing space now.  Are there steps you could take to get closer to your ideal?  Be descriptive, make us feel where you'd love to dwell as you create your pages. 

The field is empty with a zephyr blowing in such a way to move my dark brown curls across my cheek but not enough to curl the pages of my notebook.

The sakura block out enough…

We go through so many changes as we go through life, physical, emotional, romantic, etc, and I wanted to write a series on transitions, but I didn't want just one voice to be heard. Teresa was kind enough to lend some of her experiences with change and transition and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with her. We have each written three sixes, two of which will post simultaneously every day for three days at 6 pm EST;…

We go through so many changes as we go through life, physical, emotional, romantic, etc, and I wanted to write a series on transitions, but I didn't want just one voice to be heard. Teresa was kind enough to lend some of her experiences with change and transition and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with her. We have each written three sixes, two of which will post simultaneously every day for three days at 6 pm EST; hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did writing…

We go through so many changes as we go through life, physical, emotional, romantic, etc, and I wanted to write a series on transitions, but I didn't want just one voice to be heard. Teresa was kind enough to lend some of her experiences with change and transition and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with her. We have each written three sixes, two of which will post simultaneously every day for three days at 6 pm EST;…

I guess listening to the country song didn’t help the situation--Iris DeMent on the radio wailing about mommies and daddies and what they can do to a child--but the car ride home ended with me in tears because of a sweet as pie license plate placard.

“Only the best mom’s get promoted to be grandmas.”

That’s…

When I think of my mother it's a foggy out-of-focus monochromatic so I don't know the color of her skin, eyes, or hair and I can't tell what she is wearing but I can see an outline of a warm hand stroking the bangs on my five-year-old scalp telling me to try to take a nap.

It's the same with all of her images, monochrome negative outlines - black everything with just a thin white strip…

I'm ten years old and can't tell you the ratio of black to white any more than boy to girl without having to dissect my class ~ each seat in each row ~ because to me it's not race or gender just a class of people who hate me because I finish the assignments with straight A's faster than anyone else and am candidate for The Academically Gifted Program which means two days a week I will be among people 'at my level'.

Daddy pours the books out of my book bag studying them before…

After he asks my name, from the way he's looking at me, I prepare myself for what I already know is coming having  heard it so many times before, "You single or married?"



My neighbor told me years back, when I first moved into my apartment complex and was asked the question for the very first time, that men will ask this question first because they…

With 28~32 minutes of my long journey left I took a break at the bus depot, bit of a mistake since the rest caused everything from my lower back to the soles of my feet to ache, and am approached by an older man who apparently knows me from my apartment complex although I have no recollection of him. 

The man asks me why I'm alone in this part of town at night and the question causes my throat to constrict, eyes to tear, as I manage to relay to him that it's my goal to finish this…

It was time to pop my cherry, finally. 

I spruced myself up, got my hair did, put on crimson skinny jeans and a button-up shirt to match, spritzed myself with my favorite cologne, and packed my messenger bag with all the necessities. 

I drove to my destination in complete silence, none of my music…

I was on a first date in my early twenties and I wanted to take this guy to a Mexican restaurant where they play live country music---we were both fans of old school country.

We were sitting there drinking our beers and eating our enchiladas listening to a cover band play some Loretta and this cowboy sidles up to us and says,…

He had his heart broken for the first time five years ago.

His love left him for bright lights and shiny people, one of those drawbacks to living and loving so close to Los Angeles, where salt of the earth is no match for the golden boulevards. 

His broken heart changed him into someone unrecognizable,…

Wednesday night at the end of the sales day I came up thirteen dollars over and thanks to God I, for once, was able to recall how it could have possibly happened: a customer bought a plastic tub at 1.99 and four records for a dollar each and after giving me the twenty, after having waited for me to hit the AT/TL button opening the register he asked why he didn't get the discount and after prepping the form I have to fill out for an external void he said never mind and left never taking his…

She's at the bus terminal, with seven minutes to wait for Route 1 to take her home, so she decides to try and contact her friend because today makes the third day she's gone without response - text or phone call - which makes her worry something may have happened because not only is he an elderly man living alone he also spends a lot of his free time helping the homeless, taking them for a meal and/or giving them a few dollars.

What of one of them tricked him, ganged up on him with a…

My college experience is failing because so many classes want my opinion when what I do best is research and report my findings - the honors program in high school did not prepare me for this elite college's expectations. Maybe its preparing me for the hypocrisy of the outside world because how do you write, "Deborah, Deborah, you can write in the fantasy worlds of light so what care you if you get from me, your literature teacher, this nasty D?" because my interpretation of a poem from…