Ghosties and Ghoulies and Long-Legged Beasties

In my heart every day is Halloween. My husband will never understand my obsession with all things macabre, but I'm drawn to it. For a long time, I felt the need to hide my love for horror films and books, ashamed that amongst my more literary minded colleagues, my interests were amateurish. I feared they would flog me with Keats, snicker at me from behind their copies of Ulysses, and preach about...

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On Miscarriage

We were on our way to a wedding when it happened. The doctor's had told us that bleeding was common, that I was still very early and not to worry. I told myself that I wouldn't write about it. Ever since it happened, I swore up and down that I wouldn't; swore that I wouldn't even mention it outside of family and a small circle of friends who make up my support system. I feel like I've done a good...

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Grocery Guilt

Publix is my favorite grocery store. Maybe because it smells like bread all of the time. Maybe because it's the freshest produce I can find since Acworth has never heard of Whole Foods. Whatever the reason, I love doing my grocery shopping there. Except for one thing. Normally I'm not a buggy shopper, (and yes, I call it a buggy, not a cart. I live in the South, dammit), but it's hard to fit one...

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An Impasse

I truly envy those people who can sit at their computers, let their fingers fly over their keyboards, and even freaking smile while they clatter out some new plot developement on whatever manuscript on which they are currently working. I am not one of those writers. Every time I reach the end of a page, and my cursor shifts to the next, I want to shout, dance, writhe around on the floor in the kind...

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There is a light

There's a light at the end of the tunnel; however, every time I hear the phrase "there's a light," my mind automatically goes to Rocky Horror Picture Show and the light over at the Frankenstein place, and then eventually I'm singing Janet's part in "Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me" and thinking how weird it is that Rocky went on to be that guy in Coach. The previous paragraph is fairly representative...

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Under Pressure

When I was little, a go-to staple in our house was chicken and dumplings.  There were no cutting corners according to my mother, so she would haul out the pressure cooker in preparation of cooking the chicken to just the right degree of fall apart when it hits your fork.  She would keep that pressure cooker going all day; the silver and black knob at the top destined to start its rattling...

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An Insight Into The Shining

I'm starting to understand Jack Torrance's--you know "All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy, The Shining, etc...--little side trip to crazy town.  Excessive amounts of snow will do that to a person.  On Sunday night, 6 inches of snow fell.  In Georgia.  Where the most snow we ever see is a powder sugar like dusting of flurries that are gone the next day.  And we all...

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