Ghosts, growls, and GPS- My day at the Carrollton, Illinois Almshouse Maps no longer contain the location of the once well-inhabited alms house, located in quiet Greene County, Illinois. Instead, we traversed the scenic farmland, guided by only gossip and GPS coordinates, until we thought we had found the right spot. Twice, we stumbled upon dilapidated buildings thinking we had finally reached our destination, only to be disappointed by the apparent normality of the dwellings.  After hours of

Over the past month, I have learned a lot about self-publishing. However, I still have so much to figure out. I've read page after page about advertising, tweaking my book, tweaking my page, writing a blog, starting my second book, what genres sell best, when to do free ebook promotions, when to tweet, when to post, when to blog, how often to do all of these things...the list goes on and on. There have not been any "aha" moments where I felt I had read something that would magically catapult me

I’ve always been prone to bad dreams, even when I was very young, but it wasn’t until my teenage years that these nightmares turned into something much more sinister. The first time I remember having a night terror was when I was a freshman in high school. I can still feel the cold caress of the stranger looming over me as I dozed; his long, skinny fingers encouraging me to wake. As hard as I tried and as many times as I blinked, I could not erase the stranger from my vision. Reaching out, I