That’s what it’s like to grow up with an alcoholic parent—walking on eggs. Shaky and uncertain at the best of times, and at any moment, for any reason or no reason at all, you can lose your balance and find yourself in a sticky mess picking sharp fragments out of your hair. Alcoholics can lose their temper over things that happened last week, last month, last year.

Sometimes, the children of…

He had spent his time in hell, sharpening his bayonet, meticulously dusting the sand out of the rifle's firing mechanism, and making damn sure he had water. If the patrol was ambushed, which he felt certain it would, he wanted to be as prepared as he could. He was a short timer, with three days to go before his unit was to re-deploy back to the states and he found himself unconciously counting the heartbeats that pounded at the walls of his chest.

The Humvees raced out of the…

And Congratulations to everyone in the new book: 6S: Word of Mouth! All submissions in the book are presented exactly as received, so you can judge along with our panel and decide which ones are YOUR…

Michael lay on his back and counted his breaths, measuring their depth of inhalation and release. He tried to hold his breath for as long as he could, wondering when his allocated portion would expire. He remembered being a young boy, turning blue

in defiance while holding out for a demanded packet of chips, while his mother

calmly waited for necessity to take over.

When he had leaned in to kiss…

Friday July 19th - Sunday July 21st “At 7 a.m. after making secure my baggage I set off to see the old city of Quebec [...] I mounted to the Dufferin Terrace (said to be the finest promenade in the world) visited General Wolfe’s grave, the famous Chateau Frontenac, The Monuments and some of the quaint old streets.

“It was nearly 10 o'clock before our train got away from Quebec…

My eyes were tired. I had been reading for about four hours. First it was The Happy Hollisters and…