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Nobody gets hurt on playgrounds anymore. Kathy Fish, “Sea Creatures of Indiana.”

There was really no predicting where, or when, the least lonely years of one’s adult life might begin. Idra Novey, Those Who Knew.

I hated the part of me that could watch this happening and forget it was reality, wishing for terrible things to happen for the sake of my temporary entertainment. Tom McAllister, How to Be Safe.  

I’m realizing that my priorities have been shifting and focusing as the year proceeds. I’m spending  less time on short stories (tending towards no time) and more time on the novel. Even so, I think my goal of getting a complete draft of the novel by year’s end might not be reachable. August saw me completing […]

Where do people get stories? Do they go out in the world looking for interesting anecdotes? When they get home, do they write these things down and rehearse them? Tom McAllister, How to Be Safe.  

I first learned  f bonobos about the time that this book was originally published. I remember reading an article about these not-chimpanzees in the Chicago Tribune. I found it fascinating that the two ape species closest in relation to humans have bifurcated into “R-rated” species with one specializing in violence (chimpanzees) and the other sex (bonobos). […]

When she drifted from the kitchen to the living room, he followed, his hope rising like dough inside him. Idra Novey, Those Who Knew.  

When I was younger, my father took the family to Paw Paw Woods in the southwest suburbs of Chicago in search of pawpaws. We found a paw paw tree, but it had no fruit. I don’t know whether we had come at the wrong time of year or if the fruit had already been collected […]

The deepest miseries come from our capacity for remembering; if everything can be wiped away with a single swipe, then nothing has to hurt. Tom McAllister, How to Be Safe.