According to the French philosopher, Voltaire, “if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him,” the idea being that we must have a center around which all of reality organizes itself. Literally, this statement is nothing but wishful thinking — to the extent even that if the…

Doc sat at the baby grand, his fingers caressing the keys, old notes drifting out along with the smoke of a smoldering cigarette in a tray on the lid next to the music stand. The club wouldn’t open for another hour, so the tunes were for him alone, memories of…

I am told that communication is essential for a successful marriage or similar relationship. This is a depressing thought, given how difficult it is these days to get any pair of persons to understand each other. Members of the same political or religious tribe express their approved list of clichés…

A story is a vehicle. Its basic function, regardless of how much it carries and in what style, is to go from a starting point to a destination. The journey may be a simple one, or it may be complex with many windings and detours, and the distance along one…

Translation is hard. That is true about taking a text in one language and remaking it in another, but it also applies when the transformation is across media. The line from Playing by Heart that talking about love is like dancing about architecture (the idea is much older) gets its…

I grew up listening to National Public Radio, beginning in the late 1970s or early 80s — not exclusively, since I tuned in to the British Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Moscow on my shortwave and watched shows on two Public Broadcasting Service channels, one from western North Carolina and one…

She turned the key in the lock, sealing out the world. Whatever happened on the other side of her gate no longer mattered. There would be no more news, no more rumors. The world would end, or the sickness would pass over the land in a wave and move on…

Mission time: T+ 2 yrs 158 days 08 hrs Sunki held her gloved hand over the monitor for a moment, then pulled it away. The screen read two point six degrees, a tenth of a degree colder than the last time she’d checked, ten minutes before. And if she wanted…

“Hey, Tammy, come here,” Brenda called. Tammy sighed. She’d spent two weeks already training Brenda, but the child still didn’t get it. “Whatcha got?” Brenda pointed at the trash can, her lips curled in a sour face. A condom sat at the bottom of the bag. “Uh huh — and?” …