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The Wolf Spider War
In the summer of 2012, Wolf Spiders declared war on my family with a sneak attack on my oldest son while he was working in the yard clearing brush. While the war has been waged on a low scale with few active engagements in the years since, this summer the Wolf Spiders have stepped up their offensive
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Goodbye Andi
Rick lost both legs below the knee in the war. He recovered and was a successful restauranteur on Buzby Beach. Then one night a voice from the past showed up at his bar.
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My Friends Call Me D
Marissa, a girl from a small coastal town in eastern NC, and David, a boy from the lakes region of NH, meet at Spanaway Lake in western Washington State where he's a soldier and she attends college.
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Caught by the Tide
A young man spends a night on a sandbar and dreams of a girl he thinks he can never be with.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #19, Homecoming
Jake comes home from Infantry School to an unhappy surprise.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #18
Graduation day for Jake and the men of Charlie Company finally arrives.
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Soul Collectors Episode 12, A Special Collection
Gabe brings Mort a very special collection mission.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #17 First Pass
Jake and Connor learn what Connor's father knows about their birth parents.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #16
Jake and Charlie Company work their way through the first 8 weeks of Infantry School.
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Tales of the Exhausted Educator: Is There a Difference Between Doing Well at School and Actually Learning?
Some parents want their kids to learn, some only care if their grades are good even if they don't learn, and some don't care at all.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #15 Early Days
Jake and his COHORTS in what is now Cold Steel Charlie Company move into their new quarters and try out their new chow hall.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 20
Wanda accompanies Jack to breakfast at the Crabby Stack.
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Soul Collectors Episode 11, A Cozy Bar in Boston
Gabriel shows up with a complicated mission for Mort, and the complication is more emotional than procedural.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #14
Jake and his COHORT Company arrive at Fort Benning and get a warm greeting from the training cadre.
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Soul Collectors Episode 10 - Mort's First Mission
Mort's first mission is to go after a drunken husband who deserves every bit of what is about to happen to him.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 19
Wanda shows up in Buzby Beach unannounced and looking to send Jack a clear message. Will Jack be in a receptive mood?
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 18
A picnic dinner, a walk on the beach, making another date, and a promising goodnight.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 16
Jack met Georgia for an innocent cup of coffee, more to make his mother happy than for any other reason. A date for a picnic dinner was not what he expected to leave the Parisian Bean with that morning.
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Tales of the Exhausted Educator: He, She, or They - A Singular Conundrum
In this age of gender fluidity and the resulting confusion for those trying to choose a singular pronoun, the answer is as old as Shakespeare.
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Soul Collectors Episode 09 - So What Is It We Do
Mort accepts that he's in Purgatory and that he's been chosen as a Soul Collector. Now he wants to know just what it is he's supposed to do next.
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Cold War Warrior, the Jake Michaels Story #13, The Bus Ride to Benning
Jake and his cohorts ride across Georgia in commercial buses on their way to Fort Benning and the Infantry School.
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Soul Collectors Episode 08, A Conversation in Hank's Cabin
Mort awakens to find himself in a late 19th Century cabin sitting across from Hank and wondering where he is and how he got there.
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Cold War Warrior, the Jake Michaels Story #12, Loading up to Leave Fort Jackson
Jake's training company boards buses at Fort Jackson for the cross-Georgia trip to Fort Benning and the Infantry School.
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Soul Collectors Episode 07, Mort's Audition
Mort goes into the bar with his gun blazing and passes Sam's test.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #11, Breaking Things and Killing Time
The Company bully tries to intimidate Jake and gets a ticket home for his trouble.
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Soul Collectors Episode 06, An Unusual Introduction
Mort the Bounty Hunter meets Hank the Soul Collector while apprehending a particularly dangerous skip.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 07
A knock on his front door wakes Jack up much too early.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #10, First Chow Call
Jake arrives at Fort Jackson just in time for dinner.
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Soul Collectors Episode 05, a Different Line of Work
Life as a cop loses its appeal to Mort, and he seeks a different line of work.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 06
Jack arrives at his Aunt Caroline's house, now his house, on Buzby Beach.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #09, Arriving at Fort Jackson
Jake gets off the plane in Columbia and gets introduced to Army life
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Soul Collectors Episode 04, With a Little Help from a Friend
Mort's quest for justice, some may call it vengeance, takes a step closer to fulfillment with help from a friend.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 05
Everything Jack wasn't taking in his car was packed in the moving van. Everything in the van was headed for storage. Jack's old life was packed in a truck and ready to be left behind him.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #08, Day of Departure
It's Jake's last morning at home. He leaves for basic training at noon. Saying goodbye is never easy.
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Soul Collectors Episode 03, Waking up to a Nightmare
There was a shot, burning pain and then Mort wakes up in a hospital to learn his life has been ripped from him.
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Cold War Warrior, the Jake Michaels Story #07, Questions and Answers
At the Graduation Dinner his family throws for Jake, his grandma Lilly lets him know what she thinks of him and Mandy being together.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #06, Breakfast Can Wait
The morning before Jake's graduation Mandy needs to know if they have hope for a future together.
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Soul Collectors Episode 02, Old Love New Love
An old girlfriend reenters Mort's life and the old spark flares.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 04
Jack decides he doesn't want to stand around watching the movers pack up his life, so he leaves them to their work and finds another place to be.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #05, Mandy's Invitation
Jake moves out of his mother's house and into Mandy's apartment for his last month before graduation. How hard will it be to say goodbye?
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Soul Collectors Episode 01, A Veteran Comes Home
Staff Sergeant Mort Talley leaves the Army after 10 years in the Army, 8 in Special Forces, and 6 months in Iraq to become a cop in Boston, MA, his hometown.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 03
Jack packs up the few things left in the house he wants to take with him and takes one last look around.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #04, You Call This Love
Jake's first love was ripped from him by a drunk driver on Christmas Eve. Five months later could he possibly have found a new love? And will he lose his mother's love, if he ever had it?
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 02
Jack isn't hurrying through his morning. Coffee, a V-8, and breakfast at the local diner. Then it's back to the house for some final packing.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #03, Prom Night
Prom night arrives and, true to his word, Jake doesn't go. He and his friends hold a party on the beach instead. The night holds a surprise for Jake; a surprise he never dared hope for.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 01
Jack Callaghan lost his wife in a tragic auto accident. After nearly 6 months, he takes his first steps into the rest of his life.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #02, Catalyst for the Decision
Why did Jake decide to join the Army? Was if because of Genna's accident? Or was it something more insidious? Read the next installment and learn why Jake chose enlistment over education.
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Cold War Warrior, The Jake Michaels Story #01, the Decision Is Made
In this 1st Installment of the Jake Michaels Story, 17-year-old Jake enlists in the Army with his father's drunken permission; prompted to do so after the tragic death of his girlfriend Jenny.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 17
Still trying to digest the idea of a date with Georgia, Jack heads to Wilmington on a furniture and electronics hunt.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 15
Jack wakes up early and takes a walk around the town of Buzby Beach before enjoying a dip in his pool. Later, he'll meet Georgia at the Parisian Bean for coffee. Jack hasn't decided if he's looking forward to that or not.
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Football on a Rainy Night (a Story From the River Dream World)
The Shoreside Sharks last non-coference game of the season took place on a rainy Friday night. Could they keep up their unbeaten streak or would the falling rain be their downfall?
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 14
Even an old dog can learn new tricks and Jack had learned that the best way to keep up with the people he cared about was by being online. Everyone he new except his father was on Facebook.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 13
Over Jack's dinner and Corie's fries they both have to decide if they are on a date or not, and they both start to hope the other thinks so.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 12
Much to Jack's surprise he runs into Corie on the pier. Jack thinks it's just a chance meeting, but did Corie leave it all up to chance?
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 11
During his first weeks on the island Jack meets many interesting people, each of whom, it seems, has something to share with him to help him get back to living life.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 10
To appease his mother, Mary, Jack attends Mass and is introduced to Georgia, a woman who may understand what he is going through, and then some.
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Sabine Arrives at Buzby Beach
15-year-old Sabine was raped by her older sister's boyfriend when she was 12. Her sister thinks Sabine led the boy on. Dad thinks Sabine was asking for it. Mom's too drunk to care. Sabine desperately needs some coastal healing. This is her arrival at Buzby Beach.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 09
The second night on the island the loneliness is more poignant as the advantage of fatigue isn't there to help deaden Jack's mind and help him find sleep.
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Starting Over at 55 Chapter 08
The empty house needs to be filled. Jack realizes some basic housekeeping supplies and a few groceries are a must. He doesn't like it, but he needs to go shopping.
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He Should Have Looked
Young drivers so often get caught up in what's going on in the car, sometimes to their peril.
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High School Hero
High school years can be fraught with strong emotions, deep resentments, actions with tragic consequences, and unlikely heroes.
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Last Sail
Michael's son Declan has graduated college and will soon be leaving to start his military career, but not before father and son share one last sail around the lake.
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Not Just Another Board
The farm I lived on when I first married had an old tobacco barn behind the house and there was one slat on the barn broken off at the lower corner that always drew my attention.
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Go Back to Boston
Ronnie didn’t find out until he was twenty-two years old that the man he’d called Dad all his life wasn’t really his father.
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It's Been a While
Trevor had never attended any of his high school reunions. He hadn't planned to attend this one.