Category: Friends + Family

My Mother in the Afterlife

Adrienne Pine

When my mother died, the vast weather of anger surrounding her like a force of nature dissolved and disappeared as if overnight. The change was astonishing. My father had his difficulties, but a constant display of anger was not one of them. In the old days, I might have gone Read more

Adrienne Pine

Adrienne Pine's creative nonfiction has been published in The Write Place at the Write Time, Tale of Four Cities, The Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine, and other venues.

The World We Live In

Lora Boe

“Mommy, there’s a shooter,” my daughter whispers through the phone.  I’m dumbfounded. I recently took a class at work about active shooters and what to do if you run into one. I try to remember what I learned.  “Hide,” I say. “Get down and be quiet.”  I can tell she’s Read more

Lora Boe

Lora Boe resides on the coast in Northern California with her family, two dogs, and a cat. She has been a technical writer for over 20 years. She loves to hike (when she's not suffering from age-related injuries) read, and laugh.

Rumor has it… the ugly side of Gossip

Stephanie Ortez

“Gossiping and lying go hand in hand.” Proverb I have always lived by the philosophy that if someone has a problem with me, then they should tell me. Not tell everyone else.  Unfortunately, all humans do have their flaws, and more often than not, they end up telling everyone else Read more

Stephanie Ortez

Stephanie is a highly caffeinated mother of two wonderful boys. She is hopelessly addicted to non-fiction books and literature that moves her to tears. She is an admissions advisor for George Washington University online where she assists homeschooled students internationally. Stephanie lives with Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She is a passionate mental health advocate, member of Stigma Fighters. Her writing has been featured on The Elephant Journal, The Mighty, The Organic Coffee Haphazardly and Feminine Collective.

THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY: Catholic Girl Essays

Dori Owen

I am the oldest of three children. My brother Danny is a year younger than me, and we grew up, mostly, as tight comrades. We were a moderately happy family of evenly numbered four. I love even numbers. When I turn up the television volume, it must be by an Read more

Dori Owen

Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.

Streaks

Ann Klotz

I am watching pink streaks lighten the gray dawn, deepening and glowing as the minutes pass above silhouetted firs, brightness glowing from the bottom, skyward. I think about my mother, seated in her chair facing sliding glass doors to the porch, her face towards the light, keeping vigil, watching the Read more

Ann Klotz

I am a writer and mother, living in Shaker Heights, OH, where I am the Head of Laurel School, a girls' school. Our house is full of books and tiny rescue dogs. My work has appeared in Literary Mama, Mothers Always Write, the Brevity Blog, Mutha, Mamlode, The Grief Diaries, Manifest Station and elsewhere. My essay about becoming a teacher was recently published in Creative Nonfiction's anthology What I Didn't Know. I blog semi-regularly for the Huffington Post.

The Bliss of Solitude

Gessy Alvarez

I am in Santa Monica. It is a sunny April day. The temperature is 80 degrees. Perfect beach culture weather. Near the Pier and down Ocean Avenue, the beautiful Pacific view is overrun by the homeless. Mostly men, dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and slipshod sneakers. They hold half-crushed coffee cups Read more

Gessy Alvarez

Gessy Alvarez is a writer, editor, and publisher who loves literature, art, photography, and this dysfunctional world. She writes stories, poems, and essays about the middle of things. Her prose has appeared in Hobart, Asteri(x), Lunch Ticket, Volume One Brooklyn, and other publications. She shares her love of art and culture as well as some of her offbeat observations on her podcast, Digging Through with Gessy Alvarez. She earned her MFA from Columbia University. She is the Editor-in-chief of the literary and arts journal, Digging Through The Fat, and the publisher Digging Press Chapbook Series.

Loving and Leaving an Alcoholic: Am I Self Centered?

Dave Pasquel

The day after spending Christmas with family, I received a text message from a close relative. You are a self-centered piece of crap. Good riddance. You’re not welcome here ever again. Period. Everything was planned at our expense. What the fuck did I plan? What the fuck is everything? I Read more

Dave Pasquel

After living under a rock for nearly 25 years, Dave had his eyes opened wide to the world in 2010 after marrying his crazy cat lady wife. Intrigued by controversy, culture, lifestyle, current events and history, Dave has traveled to 41 states and a handful of foreign countries. Defined as ‘metro’ by his three kids, you will often find him cleaning the house instead of working out in the yard. In his spare time, Dave likes to write sappy love songs but will be the first to admit that he can’t carry a tune.

Tuning the Guitar

Victoria Addesso

Music enters my dream. It is distant, indistinct. Then, I am awake. I can still hear it. A guitar, one note over and over but changing. It is the middle of the night. I keep my eyes closed, trying to hold on to that flimsy layer of sleep out of Read more

Victoria Addesso

Vicki Addesso has worked in various fields over the years, full-time and part-time. In between family life and bill-paying endeavors, she works at writing. Co-author of the collaborative memoir Still Here Thinking of You~A Second Chance With Our Mothers (Big Table Publishing, 2013), she has had work published in Gravel Magazine, Barren Magazine, The Writer, Sleet Magazine, Damselfly Press, Feminine Collective, and Tweetspeak Poetry. A personal essay is included in the anthology My Body My Words, edited by Loren Kleinman and Amye Archer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter @VickiAddesso.