Aunt Minna Worries About Heaven – a short story
The blue Tesla Model S, gleaming in springtime sunshine, was clogging traffic, double-parked in front of Sweet Greens in downtown Bethesda as if the occupants were debating whether to eat there or one of the other three—or was it four?—organic-salad-in-a-compostable-bowl places on the block. The vehicular faux pas was no less offensive than the Range …
Free ebook: Razor Moon Antigua
Free at Amazon beginning April 3, 2020 until midnight April 7, 2020 A Vintage Caribbean Thriller. Sam Hawkins is running out of money when a phone call sends him to the Caribbean. An offer of five grand to fly to Antigua and find an ailing woman’s missing uncle. How hard could it be? Track down …
Ebooks for Free or Cheap
OverDrive Media Console is my favorite way to read ebooks for free. The app syncs with your local library system, which provides access to a massive inventory of ebooks, including current bestsellers. OverDrive is free to download and use, and works on all major devices. You will need a local library card to set up …
Florida: Forget the Weather, It’s the News
Forget overstated (if not borderline fraudulent) tourism-bureau promises of sunny days, warm temperatures, and other tropical delights that lure vacationers, snowbirds, and down-on-their luck types certain that relocating to Florida will turn around their life. The state that boasts the southern-most point in the continental U.S. shouldn’t market itself on its climate and theme parks, …
Are School Start Times Lunacy?
As Maryland launches its public school students into another year of awakening at the crack of dawn, a question worthy of conversation is whether these daily start times are in kids’ (or society’s) best interests. Consider the opinion of Matthew Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Okay, sure, Berkeley, …
A Father Sees The Future
In 1977, a father who could glimpse the future told this to his son while fishing off a dock in Ocean City, Maryland: “There will come a day in your lifetime, maybe not when you’re my age, maybe when you’re Pop’s age, that you will feel almost overwhelmed by the accumulation of all that will …
Closed For Your Convenience
Five Minute Fiction by Preston Pairo It starts out well enough. The bank teller asks me: “Good morning. Welcome to Bancs of the Americas, how may I assist you?” “Hi.” I slide my deposit slip and endorsed check through the flounder-thin opening in the inches-thick (presumably bulletproof) window that separates us. “I just have a …
Free Amazon Download Beginning 2/20/19
When Miles Peterson was 16, he killed a man in South Florida and was arrested for murder. Two years later, those charges have been dropped under suspicious circumstances and Miles’ family moves to the D.C. suburbs hoping for a fresh start. Now, Miles’ neighbors, classmates, teachers, and the police all want to know: Is Miles …
Can Chris Clare Save Baseball?
August 19, 2018 About the time I started losing interest in baseball, Chris Clare, a minor league player in the Baltimore Orioles’ farm system, was assigned to the Frederick Keys from the Delmarva Shorebirds. Clare’s “promotion” in July 2017 likely wasn’t more than a transactional footnote to many beyond his family. A six-two, 175-pound shortstop, …