The Outlaw Steve Corbett ink splotch

Charm This!

February 1, 2022

Look at this face. Do my many charms immediately come to mind? I don’t think so. In addition to nurturing an irascible personal identity, my writing is equally contentious, defiant and troublesome. Lame critics over the years have attacked me and my work with many epithets. I’ve been called hostile, arrogant, combative, rude, belligerent and […]

Blood Red Syrah Lives!

January 25, 2022

Imagine the squeaky sucking sound and explosive pop a champagne cork makes when it blasts from the bottle. Now envision the noise a human eyeball makes when it’s freed from a tight socket after Wally Wilson inserts and turns the corkscrew, twists the orb and removes the unsightly sphere. Envision? Unsightly? Get it? Gross, don’t […]

If Only He Knew How to Dance

January 17, 2022

From where white boy Jimmy Ray stood at the back of the nightclub dance floor he could see the two-tone couple glistening beneath the blue spotlight, dancing slowly, sweating, hardly moving pressed that tight against each other. In a dress that matched her pale freckled skin, the white woman confused Jimmy Ray by keeping her […]

Big Mike’s Christmas Miracle: A Short Story

December 23, 2021

News of the ceramic baby Jesus stolen from the church manger scene broke like five-dollar dinner plates in a drunken wedding anniversary argument. In the chilly aftermath, Big Mike’s words went viral, shooting off from his big Pittsburgh mouth like fireworks or foam from a shaken can of Iron City popped the day bosses at […]

Where the Love Light Gleams: A Short Story

December 21, 2021

“Where you going, old-timer?” “Home for Christmas.” “Need a ride?” “No, thank you, I’ll walk.” When Richard Arnold left the house at 8 a.m. Friday morning, he wore his good blue polyester sportcoat, a white shirt, tan dress slacks he bought at Sears before he retired, brown socks and black dress shoes he polished to […]

The Outlaw Steve Corbett ink splotch