Garlic is something most of us commonly use. I have garlic growing all over the back of my garden. I’ve always cut the leaf tops and use it like I would an onion top and assumed that if I let the flower finish and dry that I was doing the right thing. Wrong! A horticulturist […]
May 17, 2010
Why My Wife and I Write
My wife, Lydia, and I were doing our favorite thing which is sitting on our patio and having coffee with our friends at 7 o’clock in the morning, when I started taking notes on why we started writing fiction. Over the last several years we have written eight unpublished novels. Now, I think we are about ready […]
May 16, 2010
Picking Peaches
The climb up to the gate is steep and slippery. On top of the hill, under a threatening mass of black jack oaks, the front of the house with its screened porch looks down upon a peach tree growing near the fence on the side by the driveway. I can smell the peaches across the grass, their scent […]
May 13, 2010
Super Fly
My patio has been overrun by swarms of flies. Bug zappers don’t work, and I’ve worn out three fly swatters. I bought a non-chemical trap ( the stinky kind) and hung it up fifty feet away where the smell can only affect my neighbor’s barbecue pit and picnic area. The trap, which is like a baited plastic bag […]
May 12, 2010
Coal Fired Backup Generator or Tornado Producer?
In the latest move to discredit wind generated electric power, opponents claim that the numbers of coal fired backup generation plants have increased, and therefore the move to wind generated power has actually added to the potential for pollution in West Texas. If the wind dies, we have a dirty air crisis. Maybe. If the […]
May 11, 2010
What If a Terrorist Did This?
In this scenario, The “Foreign Organization” substitutes one batch of cell phones (thousands) for another. The new cell phones are exactly like the original except that a small explosive charge has been substituted as a dummy chip in the circuit. When a certain number is dialed by the new owner, the phone explodes killing its user. […]
May 7, 2010
Origins
At the age of 70, I’ve begun to think that it’s time to think about origin myths. At first this seemed like it was going to be an exercise in religious study, but gradually I began to believe that origin myths are for us more secularly oriented persons. I like these three contemporary myths from which […]
April 22, 2010
Callie Houston: A New Thriller
In the pre-Katrina world of south Louisiana, a high school girl, her boy friend, and her mother are about to be caught up in a violent act of retribution. Callie lives with her single-parent mom, makes do with a flaky boyfriend, and is a junior at a high school in the small town of Hammond, […]
April 15, 2010
Bah Humbug to some of my Engineering Friends
It’s true. I’m opinionated, cantankerous, and maybe smarter than you might think if you observed me puzzling over sprinkler fittings in the local Lowes Store. I’ve done my stint at photographing Russian satellites, sailing, making paints and coatings, exploring the wonders of small molecules back in the days when you polished optical plates made of […]
June 26, 2009
Jaq Lin
I call Julie who by now is at the office to tell her my immediate schedule. After further adventures at the bank, I have a few extra minutes before Monday’s staff meeting at the office, so I drop by Noel’s office to have a chat about my liability insurance—or soon to be lack of said […]
June 26, 2009
Message from Laz
“Ms. Nightwing?” The voice belongs to my field tech in Houston, Texas. “What is it, Laz?” Laz, short for Lazarra. Lazarra Rayburn, my field tech at the Sabine River Nuclear Project. She is a smart young woman that I like a lot. Background noise on the connection blurs her speech.
April 24, 2009
Prologue of the Weatherman
I am a voice in my head. As long as I don’t interfere, the rest of me functions rather well—until Miss V hands me the fortune cookie at the finish line of a plateful of her twice baked pork. “Herro Razalla,” Miss Violet does the Chinese thing with Lazarra even though she’s Stanford, Class of […]
April 16, 2009
Macquereau’s Betrayal
Thump, thump, and bang…thump, thump, and bang— repeating endlessly. Macquereau winces and I hold on tightly to the vibrating steering wheel as we bounce over a stretch of bad highway between Vidor and the Louisiana border. The concrete slabs were poured over a poorly prepared foundation. Heavy trucks slamming across the loose slabs caused them […]
April 10, 2009
Vag Weapon
Captain Srrith smoothed her orange fur across the bandage over her right eye and suppressed her irritation by concentrating on the trajectory displays flickering across her pilot’s console. Imagine being mistaken for a cave leopard! Aldren would be laughing all the way to the next star system when he saw her recording of the indigenous […]
April 6, 2009
Jim’s Grill is Better
The tragic episode began when Carl’s wife said that Jim’s barbeque was better than his. “A damn site better than yours,” he remembered her yelling at him. Jill had said it, and he couldn’t forget it. After her loud and slightly drunken pronouncement, she had flounced off across their new, Mexican-tile patio leaving him standing […]
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May 25, 2010
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