In the flickering glow of a blue candle Ruby’s face resembled a ghost, a soul shadow from the netherworld. Bathed in purple light from the fluorescent art deco circle hanging on the outside balcony wall of her new efficiency apartment her caramel skin blended to glow as a lush ripe plum. Sitting in a white […]
Writing as revolution helps shake up and even smash the establishment. The Constitution, the Communist Manifesto and the Hairy Messenger (a subversive underground newspaper I founded in 1969 when I raised hell as a Susquenita High School senior in rural Central Pennsylvania) comprise only three radical acts of printed rebellion that required fighting words. My […]
Keeping secrets challenged most people. Not Kim Phillips. Even as a girl, Kim – who everyone knew then as Kate, Kate Leary – never gossiped, told tales out of school or spread rumors. She was no tattle tale. No snitch. As he father often said, “No rats allowed in this house.” One morning about 4:00 […]
Killing isn’t supposed to be easy. Neither is justifying the grisly act. But ask anybody who commits such a ghastly deed and he or she will likely explain away the dire circumstances that led to that dark finality, explaining exactly why death happened as it did. Randall Lark killed on behalf of his government. He […]
Still hearing shrill voices in her head but not telling anyone, relief washed over Kim Phillips that the “girls,” as she now called them, were keeping to themselves. The exorcism must have scared split personalities Shannon and Tara into some kind of weird mental demilitarized zone as Kim tried to keep going about her business […]
