Amapola Press

If you are old enough, or if you have grandparents of a certain age, you learned the word nostalgia early on, and Joe Franklin (the self-p...

I know several people who are living in transition for a variety of reasons. Some have gone public with their pain; others share privately ...

Finally, autumn has arrived. The season has a built-in nostalgia that poets have honed for millennia, what with its golden coolness into the darkness of winter. The presence of the Pope clamors for kindness, but I am still writing stories on the aftermath of infidelity. It’s not impossible to be kind, but it can be hard. Infidelity is not as black and white as one would want it to be every single time. The problem, as it is with any system, is that humans can foul it easily. The latest story…

Today is Langston Hughes’ birth date. Brother Langston was a formidable poet and one of the shining stars of the Harlem Renaissance. ...

Last night I finished editing the final version of The Kite (one of the stories that will be included in the aftermath of infidelity anthology). Its working title is still Bloody Trail of Disenchantment, though I admit that is quite a mouthful. The Kite is a vignette, as it does not tell a whole story. It hints at parts that are still largely unknown. The story was a little problematic as it has been a source of some internal wrangling. Last year, I started writing a few pieces and The Kite…

We have spent the last couple of weeks streaming episodes of Gilmore Girls . We loved the show on its original run (at least five seasons, ...

The last few weeks I have been trying to portray what I thought would be a simple scene: a woman makes lunch for her long-lost childhood sweetheart, his wife and their daughter. The problem is that as I write the scene and let it unravel, there is so much resentment in the room it is almost stifling! Having lived through similar situations (not in the details but in the aggregate), it is painful to write. You relive the horror and find yourself trying to put distance between your soul and…

When Pokémon first came into the scene and became a phenom, I was working at Disney Adventures magazine. Kids loved those little critters a...

I always thought that if I created my own tarot deck, I’d add a new card: The Gossip. The truth is that The Gossip would probably h...

“So, being a writer is, like, a total blast, right?” a well-meaning person said to me recently. “You can do whatever you want, whenever and stuff. OMG! I am sooo jealous!!!” (Eloquent, she wasn’t.) Some days are easier than others; depending on what level the brain is operating. I am suffering from a well-meaning brain period. I am not writing because I have been preoccupied with other tasks, and my brain (well-meaning as it is) has helpfully offered this advice, “Don’t worry, child! I’m…

“You lied.” Two simple little words that carry so much weight when spoken from a broken heart. In “The Legacy,” one of the short stories in Sins of the Father, Angie confronts her dad about an incident of adultery. He lied. She knows he lied and she states it simply. It takes some decision-making, but she finally confronts him. But how often does that happen? It's not an easy choice for Angie, but I know self-assured women who probably would never dream of it! I remember a friend of mine…

I wrote this in 1998 and edited it in 2006, and now again in 2015. It pretty much sums up every December 1 for over two decades. It marks a...

There appears to be a blog post missing here, but I did not save it… At any rate, I have less than a week to finish my book! There is one more story to go and it is being a little prickly. As it turns out, the first volume of stories skews towards a particular theme that I had not seen emerge. Freudian? Not really, there are other stories, but these were easier to finish and edit. The result is this: There are a few funny moments. Some witty bantering… There are a number of heartbreaking…

A few weeks ago, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were in Puerto Rico. Coulson stood in a corner I’ve stood in a hundred times, looking into a s...

It is Hispanic Heritage Month again and I’d like to take this opportunity to mix that with the larger ideal behind the celebration of Colu...

It’s October and NaNoWriMo is barreling towards us at increasing speed. I am not at all sure that I will participate this year, though it seems to me that I need to – if only to focus my efforts. In fact, one of the stories started as NaNoWriMo sits untouched because after some time it became clear that it was derivative without any good twists to make it truly a gem. It can remain in the dark until I can salvage it (from itself or for parts, as the case may be). I’d rather not publish than…