From the Author

I do not believe in evil.  I believe in stupidity, greed, ignorance, depression, bad luck, misinformation, fear, desire, and neglect, but not in evil. Evil is what we call things when at the end of the day, we tire of or simply don’t care enough to figure out.  If, indeed, monsters exist, then we are all monsters – fucking up various lives in our own monstrously stupid, greedy, ignorant ways.             The good thing about evil, its saving grace, the good thing about the no

I wrote this brief essay after I had written the title piece in my first collection of short stories, “Peach.” I’d offered it to a periodical that required authors to come up with a “process” essay on the story, and I was so convinced that those editors would take “Peach” that I went ahead and penned “Intimate Indifference.” The story was not taken, was published and nominated for a Pushcart by another magazine.  This short essay, it seems to me, is still germane to today’s s

I find it fascinating how, as soon as one starts to publish fiction, the world perks up and wants to talk.  I’ve published six books of poetry – three in Spanish, one bilingual, and three in English.  I’ve published reviews, essays on poetry, introductions and epilogues for other writers, and all the other side-bar appendages of writing as well. None of these have garnered as much immediate attention from the world as this first book of short stories, “Peach,” which has only

murder, suicide, bestiality, revenge, alcoholism, abuse, necrophilia, rape, stalking, sexual situations               My collection of short stories, “Peach” (Nightmare Press, 2025) can be described as “transgressive fiction” or “dark, speculative fiction.” I retired from college teaching, primarily literature and writing, before “trigger warnings” became popular and students could opt out of material which might shock or disturb them, so I suppose that I’ve never been clear