This is another flash fiction piece that originally appeared at Tribe's excellent Flashing in the Gutters site.

Way out there, we couldn’t do anything but bury the girl and leave a marker for someone to find. With Ray already limping from his knee injury, we couldn’t carry her back, and if we just left her in the woods, half naked and cut up so bad, animals would come along and no one would ever find her, or even know who she was. So I dug with the camp shovel, doing what…

This short piece originally appeared on Tribe's excellent Flashing in the Gutters site.

Not your fault your first shot missed, not your fault the punk returned fire. Not your fault Reymond's vest didn't cover his paunch or that he stood stock still in the doorway, fumbling with the thumb break on his new duty rig.

Not your fault he got killed.

Punk was Reymond's word. Everyone on the street was a punk to him. Or a kid.

You don't have…

Okay, I admit it. I've met someone new.

Sigh. *batseyes*

Do you want to hear about him? I don't even know what to say, he's soooo dreamy. Which means, I admit, that I dream about him constantly. Daydream. You know. Oh my. But he's so amazing.

His name is Eager Gillespie.

Yes, I know, that couldn't be his real name? Could it? Maybe it is. When a while can be named Moon Unit or Metallica, Eager doesn't sound so weird. Of course, maybe it's…

For reasons I can't now explain, I booked a haircut today at 8.15am. Horror! Which, as Lynda is always always early (in fact she may well have been sitting outside the flat since last night ...), meant that Lord H and I had to be sure to be up, bathed and decent by 7am. Hell, we managed it too. Almost. But there wasn't much intelligent conversation going on, I can tell you. When it got to 8am, I decided to nip out and see if Lynda was there. She was. So I crept up to the car, leaned…

"Author Sylvia Dickey Smith has skillfully woven a story of a woman driven to begin a new life on her own with…

Sacrificing Body Parts

I sacrificed a body part to write my debut novel – No One Heard Her Scream. Now that's commitment.…

Bit slow this morning, so had to dash to get to my counselling session (http://www.castlestreetclinic.com/). Must say that Kunu had a lovely summer skirt on - I was really impressed, but didn't dare say anything in case she thought I was being more weird than normal. Or maybe she's just used to that by now? Anyway, we had a good session, better than last week, I think. We talked about my weekend of silence, and how…

Sisters In Crime is looking for a few good book clubs. Well, we're actually looking for a LOT of good book clubs and reader groups.

With hundreds of mysteries published every eyar, how can your group find new, fresh voices you'd be interested in trying? Perhaps you want to know when your favorite mystery author puts out a new book. Registering your group with Sisters In Crime's Book Club Data Base will ensure that your to-be-read pile will never drop below a foot…

I wish I could read fast enough to post something new and wonderful about a different book every day, but reading fast enough isn't really the issue: life is the issue. It's that having to go to work everyday thing that gets in the way. And the thousand-and-one things I have to do on the way home from work like pick up drycleaning and go to the grocery store, and, and, and...Conversely, would I truly be living a life if my dream came true and I…

Here, April is a month-long tease leading up to spring. Backyards and ball diamonds are barely functional and most city streets still wear the sand and salt scars of the annual war with winter. The daylight stays longer, grows stronger, but athletes and intellectuals, alike, struggle to reclaim their edge.…

ROMANCE

There was a knock on the door of my hotel room. I knew who this wouldbe. My heart started beating fast like a baby sparrow fluttering in my ribcage. I fluffed up my hair, touched up my lipstick, adjusted my heaving breasts and opened the door. Tarquin…

Of course everybody wants to know why Cho, the 23 year-old Korean student, shot and killed so many people at Virginia Tech (the school where my older son got his MFA, so I have some personal warm feelings for Blacksburg). Those who aren't asking Why are asking How can we prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future? The short answers are, We'll never know, and We can't. And that's true, but there are things we can know and things we can…