The following is an alternate version of “Chapter 12.”  I submitted the original version to a literary magazine many years ago & it was rejected for being too oddball. The editor wrote me, saying he’d publish me if I took the germ of the idea — rug shampooer in a private eye story — & wrote… Continue reading

I wrote this short story many years ago in literally 10 minutes, about as long as it took to type. I was doing a magazine layout project and was supposed to fill it with “lorem ipsum”-type copy. Instead I wrote this. Then, without warning, she sautéed her way into my office and said: “Got the time, stranger?”… Continue reading