Carl E. Reed’s “Cold Tickle” now in Rabbit Hole V anthology

I’m lucky enough to have my work included in The Rabbit Hole Volume 5: Just…Plain…Weird anthology along with quite a group of talented authors. I especially love the teaser

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole. On our fifth excursion into the warren of the odd, 37 authors lead us down their own little burrows of strangeness : an army of penguins, music that cures, aliens that communicate through old cartoons, images of the future that save, unwanted visions of the now, and, oh yes, it is raining lawyers. All have one thing in common, they are just…plain…weird.
Weird can be funny, weird can be sad, weird can be thoughtful, weird can be mad, but the one thing in common is that weird shares experiences you have, thankfully, never had.
Just be careful, all little bunnies are not nice, but they are memorable.

 
About the Author
Carl E. Reed is currently employed as a roofing operations specialist at a window, siding, and door company just outside Chicago. Former jobs include: U.S. marine, long-haul trucker, stage actor, cab driver, construction worker, and door-to-door encyclopedia salesman. His poetry has been published in The Iconoclast, Spectral Realms, Black Petals, & Deathlehem: Holiday Horrors; short stories in Black Gate, newWitch, Sci-Fi Lampoon, Penumbra and elsewhere. He is a member of Frank Coffman’s Weird Poets Society.

 
How the stories came about? Continue reading “Carl E. Reed’s “Cold Tickle” now in Rabbit Hole V anthology”

That Th!nk You Do Chapter 6 – Guys Can’t Help Themselves

For those who didn’t know, I’ve signed with a new publisher and my first book out with them, The Think You Do, should be available late Nov-Dec ’22.

Read:

As always, let me know what you think.


Guys Can’t Help Themselves

 
I have never accepted “Boys will be boys” as an excuse for socially unacceptable behavior. But have you noticed that the vast number of “acting out” news items involve males? Consider DUIs, fights, shouting matches, anything you care to recognize as “bad behavior” and the involvement of males greatly over shadows the involvement of females.

Why is that?

Well, to a certain degree it’s because guys can’t help themselves.

No, this is not an apologetic for bad behavior and I’m definitely not providing men a carte blanche. What I’m recognizing is that the wiring of the male brain makes it easier for them to behave badly. Women don’t have the same wiring.

And no, I’m not kidding. Research performed at John Hopkins and elsewhere is verifying yet another difference between males and females, another evolutionary difference in addition to the obvious sexual traits.

It works like this: cause humans to do something pleasurable and their brains release dopamine (the “pleasure molecule”). Well, duh!, right? But male brains release up to three times as much pleasure for a given stimulus as female brains do.

Three times as much? Well, heck. Sign me up right now, please.
Continue readingThat Th!nk You Do Chapter 6 – Guys Can’t Help Themselves”

Great Opening Lines – and Why! (October 2022’s Great Opening Lines)

I wrote in Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Part 3 – Some Great Opening Lines) that I’d share more great opening lines as I found them.

My last entry in this category was July 2022’s Great Opening Lines – and Why! (May 2022’s Great Opening Lines) which covered Binah Shah’s Before She Sleeps. This entry in the Great Opening Lines – And Why! posts is Laura Koerber‘s Coyote’s Road Trip.
Continue reading “Great Opening Lines – and Why! (October 2022’s Great Opening Lines)”

Sally Basmajian’s “Sabre Dance” now in Rabbit Hole V anthology

I’m lucky enough to have my work included in The Rabbit Hole Volume 5: Just…Plain…Weird anthology along with quite a group of talented authors. I especially love the teaser

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole. On our fifth excursion into the warren of the odd, 37 authors lead us down their own little burrows of strangeness : an army of penguins, music that cures, aliens that communicate through old cartoons, images of the future that save, unwanted visions of the now, and, oh yes, it is raining lawyers. All have one thing in common, they are just…plain…weird.
Weird can be funny, weird can be sad, weird can be thoughtful, weird can be mad, but the one thing in common is that weird shares experiences you have, thankfully, never had.
Just be careful, all little bunnies are not nice, but they are memorable.

 
About the Author
Sally Basmajian is an escapee from the corporate broadcasting world in Canada. Before fleeing the business, she was Bell Media’s Vice President and General Manager, Comedy and Drama.
She completed her Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing at Humber College in 2019 and holds a Master of Arts from the University of Toronto. In 2022, she placed third in Florida’s Gulf Coast Writers Association contest (2022) as well as in the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop’s International Writing Contest (2022) for different memoir pieces. Her stories have appeared in The Globe & Mail, Ten Stories High, The Year’s Best Dog Stories 2021, and other anthologies. In January 2023, her first novel, a contemporary rom-com, will be published by Creative James Media. Her second novel, a psychological thriller, will be published by Moonshine Cove Publishing later the same year.

 
How the stories came about? Continue reading “Sally Basmajian’s “Sabre Dance” now in Rabbit Hole V anthology”

James Rumpel’s “Superstition” now in Rabbit Hole V anthology

I’m lucky enough to have my work included in The Rabbit Hole Volume 5: Just…Plain…Weird anthology along with quite a group of talented authors. I especially love the teaser

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole. On our fifth excursion into the warren of the odd, 37 authors lead us down their own little burrows of strangeness : an army of penguins, music that cures, aliens that communicate through old cartoons, images of the future that save, unwanted visions of the now, and, oh yes, it is raining lawyers. All have one thing in common, they are just…plain…weird.
Weird can be funny, weird can be sad, weird can be thoughtful, weird can be mad, but the one thing in common is that weird shares experiences you have, thankfully, never had.
Just be careful, all little bunnies are not nice, but they are memorable.

 
About the Author
James Rumpel is a retired high school math teacher who enjoys trying to convert some of the odd ideas circling his brain into actual stories.

 
How the stories came about? Continue reading “James Rumpel’s “Superstition” now in Rabbit Hole V anthology”