MLB opens today. With the game on my mind, I revisit how a small deformity of mine became an asset in fiction for the narrator---an all star pitcher---of my first published story. My thumb, badly slashed on New Years Eve by the broken neck of a champagne bottle, never healed properly. After surgery to reconnect … Continue reading Opening Day
Short Fiction
Sharing Short Fiction
Good friend, great colleague, and talented writer Linda McMullen had this short fiction published this past winter's Solstice at Typishly. It's wry, smart, and tight, and it begins like this: The Announcement by LINDA MCMULLEN He was the product of a torrid affair between an Edith Wharton novel and a J. Crew catalogue, with his wavy Titian … Continue reading Sharing Short Fiction
Joe Camel, Still Cool
Yesterday a friend of mine posted our first-through-fourth grade photos online. Got me thinking about this old story in the hopper 20 years. I dragged it out and dusted it off and submit it now for your entertainment. It's all about that first cigarette. This is to the memory of those no longer with us, Trevor and … Continue reading Joe Camel, Still Cool
One Dead Cop: the Wattpad Experiment
My Wattpad experiment comes to an end. I'll publish my conclusions next week. For now, here is the rest of One Dead Cop. Pick up where you left off below, or read from Part I. 4 Palm Massacre Darko’s voice comes hushed and urgent over the phone. I have something for you. An accident? Fitch … Continue reading One Dead Cop: the Wattpad Experiment
CURRY PATTA, JUNGLE OATS, AND PEACE CORPS
My wife keeps a curry plant to flavor her beautiful Indian cooking. Our boys have taken to snapping off the greenest leaves and eating them raw. Their chewing fills the air with a sharp, fresh scent. Yesterday, the plant was brought indoors—frost—to spend the night on our low kitchen table. When the boys found it … Continue reading CURRY PATTA, JUNGLE OATS, AND PEACE CORPS
THIS IS HOW WE TWEET
Assistant Secretary Crickshaw wants to tweet. His request (order) reaches us in Electronic Media via the staff aides in the front office, setting in motion a whole series of actions that repeat the actions of the day before and the day before that, all the way back to the day we first tweeted, which … Continue reading THIS IS HOW WE TWEET
Ben East Books 