Robbie had watched the photographer arrive from an upstairs window. Yes, he remembered him from his last visit. What was his name? Idly he mulled over the possibilities, knowing that ...
Pauline had to put her hand right into the bend of the lavatory to ensure the condoms would flush away. Even with her Marigolds on she could feel their jelly ...
Soap has always been a disappointment.
I never won Miss Pears even though
Mum said I should. At six I was probably
Too blond and pale; they wanted
A darker, more robust beauty I ...
I have picture albums full
Of mum sitting in her armchair
The chair and mum have changed
Slightly over the years with
Different fads and fashions.
Together they have moved round
The room until they have ...
Baby clean; haloed by the
Pink haze of disinfectant,
Hair capped back,
Face blank.
I’m marked with the sign of the cross,
The place where the knife enters,
Cuts through bone and nerves.
The surgeon said the ...
I danced in a field at a music festival, twirled so my dress billowed like a pom-pom puffball. It felt like the tickle of tinsel or the caress of a ...
Blink-blink.
The bird was wedged sideways in Possum's mouth. The cat's fur was fluffy at the back like a tulle skirt. His green eyes blinked at Rachel through the French ...
When I sliced into the agingorange, it skin already dimpling,navel sinking deeper, it fellopen, offering still juicy virginsections and shiny seeds.I inhaled its citrus scent as ifto learn the tongue ...
. . . v. to be faithful to / not swerve;to preserve or maintainWe keep the hours, mark them on our walls,wear them on our wrists, hoard them in the
chambers ...
I'm not advocating that you sit around and write in the altogether, although you could if you want to. I am advocating that you feel free when you write because ...
Would you like to moodle?
I stole the term from writing guru Brenda Ueland, who recommended moodling in her book If You Want To Write. She wasn't talking about cows, ...
I have just received a brief letter from my daughters, Gillian and Josephine, telling me of their decision to carrying on backpacking across Europe for a year. My heart sunk ...
To the casual observer it might merely look like a dumb waiter. A wooden box that hauls between the floors of the house by counterweight pulley, but to me it ...
The creative process has long bragged of a tint of magic, and indeed, it sometimes does feel that way. A eureka sentence or two appears on the page or a ...
Proper nutrition is more important than ever in today’s fast-paced, high-tech world. It takes a lot of energy to keep up with the demands of ungrateful teenagers, a self-absorbed husband, ...
Darby took her cup from the barista and squared her shoulders. It had been years since she’d last set foot in this café. She and Jen used to order mochaccinos ...
Floating flirtatiously across the wooden boards
Dressed in apple red skirts and scarlet hued hats;
Searching frantically for the music to the chords,
Heads held high as their eyes they bat:
Bounding ne'er and ...
I sometimes imagine my husband dies in his sleep. I do. It’s horrible. I’m horrible. Think what you will, but the truth is I have colorful but gloomy fantasies about ...
They sat under the shade of the cypress tree, drinking retsina and sharing the inevitable Greek salad as they watched the sun go down over the Libyan sea. For Denise ...
Sunday
She was doing weights tonight. I saw them get delivered, watched as she ripped open the box like a kid at Christmas. She was watching herself in the mirror as ...
The sea is calling me.
In my world of cell phones I can’t escape,
too many emails to answer,
the blah, blah, blah of a million different voices,
always, always,
there’s a private room in ...
At 27, I took my first plane flight, and I published my first book. "No!"Hans was wondering how to begin his latest story, but realized that the thread he first thought ...
"So, everyone continues to believe in his own saints, right? ""Well, I would refer to them more as opinions, standings... ""You mean, everyone continues to believe in their own beliefs ...
