The story of my life told in short fiction and essays. Features author commentary on the real-life events that inspired the stories.

“Girl in Pink, Seeing Red”
Never mess with a little girl’s best friend – even if she is dressed all in pink.
Micro fiction. Includes author commentary.

“Two Fathers”
“He is clasping my hand and leading me down the street to the local bar; propping me up on a barstool so all his friends can see, can joke with me and about me while I twirl about on the red vinyl, tall and proud to be out with Daddy.”
Vignette. Includes commentary on the fathers from my youth.

“Yellow Wagon”
A young girl walks to school alone – is she being stalked?
Flash fiction. Includes an alternate version and my essay “How Many Times Do I Have to Rewrite this %&^# Thing? The ‘Yellow Wagon Saga”

“The Second Grade”
Essay. Because everything’s a first when you’re in the second grade.

“Twilight”
“She was strong, she was beautiful, she was graceful. Even if it was only in twilight that it showed.”
My very first flash fiction publication. Includes author commentary.

“Past and Present”
“ ‘It was lucky I forgot my keys,’ her mother was saying, rubbing the raised scar between her daughter’s thumb and forefinger. ‘I came back and found you lying in a pool of blood.’ ”
Flash fiction. Third place winner of Avalon Literary Review’s Summer 2013 Contest. Includes author commentary.

“Haunted”
Essay. In which rationality triumphs over superstition – almost.

“Goat”
Flash fiction. Includes commentary on how acquiring an odious nickname changed my adolescent life for the better.

“Fallen Ideal”
“I didn’t think I wanted to get married. But now I wonder who will take me to the bathroom when I’m too old to stand.”
Micro fiction. Includes author commentary on why married people live longer.

“Deep-Water Girl”
Micro fiction. Includes commentary on “deep-water man” and one of my more bizarre travel experiences.

“Rest Stop”
Flash fiction. Includes commentary on my first time being propositioned as a body for hire – and how long it took me to realize that that’s what had happened.

“Found Money”
“It was something, wasn’t it? Finding five dollars. Not a matter of life or death, maybe. Not just yet.”
Flash fiction. Includes commentary on one of the most trying times of my life, my homeless period.

“Heads of the Line”
“Each job had its own rhythm. Scrape, scrape, scrape. Thunk; thunk; thunk. It was such a persuasive rhythm that sometimes you even forgot that it was a part of the job. Like that unfortunate header from last season…”
Flash fiction. Includes commentary on my months working in an Alaskan fish-packing plant.

“Fog Line”
“He raised his flashlight and looked her over, as they always did, comparing the image on the out-of-state license to the young woman in the rusty van that pre-dated her by a decade.”
Flash fiction. Includes author commentary on being a recurring “victim” of vehicular profiling.

“Jackson, Mississippi”
Essay on finally understanding how it must feel to be black in a largely white world.

"Baby and Me"
"Our best friends were having a baby. Inwardly, I groaned."
Flash fiction. In which I fail to comprehend the reproductive instinct that seems to be consuming everyone around me.

"Funeral for Charlie"
"I watched as the water swirled away, taking Charlie on one final miraculous journey to the home of his ancient ancestors, to the ocean the abrupt end of his short life had precluded him from ever going to see."
Flash fiction. Sad, but oh so true.

“Dead in the Water”
“She hung suspended, gazing up at the sky, the sun, the surface, at the cord entangling her foot. It was too late. She would drown; she would die there beneath the water, ten feet away from the people who loved her.”
Micro-fiction. Includes commentary on the day that changed the course of my life forever.

“Scars”
An exploration of the map of my body.
Essay. Includes author commentary.