The following story is from the mind of my 13-year-old daughter, Agatha Rose. She wrote it on her phone after dinner on Saturday night during commercials of the Panthers game. Granted, I edited it for her, but the concept was all hers. The force is strong with this one. *** “’Come back!’ the voice called out as I ran as fast as I could down the darkening path. It was just a normal day after school when I decided…
Sometimes I’m amazed at what people share and retweet. Namely, when some self-help guru offers some basic advice about how to live, and people fawn over it. You want some advice on how to live? Stop listening to self-help gurus. Everything you need to live your life to the fullest is currently within you. It’s called a conscience. A conscience is the little voice inside of you that tells you right from wrong. And it’s in you as much as it’s…
A few years ago I started compiling the best tweets I saw during the year into blog posts. Here’s this year’s version. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. just chased a cup of coffee with a red bull and saw the future for 30 seconds. — Troy McCall (@interzonejunkie) January 6, 2014 To everyone saying “just put on more clothing” about the cold, next 90° high humidity day I’ll say “just sit on the porch and sip sweet tea” —…
The following snippet is from a chapter titled Angels and Devils in my upcoming book Minor King. In it, the protagonist Jim Christianson is having a conversation with his 10-year-old daughter, Abigail. You can order Minor King by clicking here. *** “Daddy?” she said. “Yes, sweetie?” “Is the devil scary-looking?” she asked. “No,” I said without hesitation. I’d given this a lot of thought over the years. Early on in sobriety, the only way I could understand what was going on inside of…
He arrives in a gray Subaru. We ask him to pull all the way into the driveway so we can get kids off to school. He carries a clipboard, camera, and measuring tape. He has a firm grip. My wife stays behind. “He’s in the attic,” she texts me. “Is he nice?” Of course there’s no way to tell because he’s not even human. He’s a machine that takes pictures of doors that need paint and a crack in…
Yesterday I stopped for gasoline and pulled behind a red Cadillac. As I selected my grade of fuel, a young black man emerged from the convenience store and walked to the Caddy. He was dressed in dark baggy jeans, white sneakers, a red jacket with white leather sleeves, and a red baseball cap. He looked good. He put a case of Corona in the trunk and started to pump gas. I noticed a police car at a light on the corner…
