by Marie Davis and Margaret Hultz      Horribly disfigured by life GeeGee was a hard ass—hard as brick, no granite, no diamonds. She was a diamond hard-ass, but not the kind of froufou diamonds seductively smiling in posh jewelry shops. No, hard-ass GeeGee developed slowly through seemingly eons of external pressure—like industrial … [Read more...] about SUNTAN: Between the lines.

by Julie Prince The train stopped at Portimao. At least we thought it had. You know how it is sometimes when it's dark, and you don't speak the language.We'd been muddling through the continent, Paul and I. Energetic youngsters that we were, we'd given up our jobs-not-worth-keeping to backpack around Europe for a few months. We had to accept our decidedly … [Read more...] about The Other Side of the Subtitles.

by David D. HorowitzA spate of murders and assaults in 2012 has illustrated how vulnerable Western Washington is to the pressures and problems that yield violent crime elsewhere in the United States. It seems every day here an estranged husband or boyfriend shoots and kills his partner, children, and self; a drug deal goes bad in an alley at 2 a.m., and a corpse remains to … [Read more...] about Pray to Goddess.

by Alena Deerwater You've heard of the burning bush through which God spoke to stuttering Moses.  My bush grew a head and spoke to me. A chocolate brown female head. At the time I was mute – well, that's an exaggeration – I was sixteen, grounded, and refusing to speak to my father (the one of the flesh and blood variety).    It all … [Read more...] about The Tingle-Bush.