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jamesp420
Jan 264 min read
Shaking Hands with "Bones"
We're sitting in a hotel bar in Minneapolis, having just stepped away from the Protospiel event we’re attending, which is a board game...
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jamesp420
Oct 20, 20246 min read
The Scarred Beauty of Tragedy
My wife and I recently spent a few days in southeastern Wisconsin. We were supposed to enjoy this trip with a friend of ours visiting...
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jamesp420
Aug 1, 20245 min read
The Derecho of 1980
It was a pleasant early evening in the middle of summer, about a half-hour before sundown. I was nine years old, tossing paper airplanes...
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jamesp420
Jun 13, 20247 min read
“The Scientist” by Coldplay: My Emotional Rollercoaster Ride
And, how it became the perfect song for Jack and Pauline from Shrugging. Around the time my wife Melanie and I were stepping away from...
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jamesp420
Jun 5, 20242 min read
Creativity as Addiction
Nail-biting. Overeating. Alcoholism. Drug abuse. Disorders that feel so good when one buckles under to those compulsive urges. Habits...
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jamesp420
May 22, 20243 min read
The List
Here is the rough beginning to a story I poked at a while ago but never invested any time to finish—and probably will never finish? It...
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jamesp420
May 10, 20244 min read
My Father's Tears
The kitchen table had become the nexus of creation for my father. That’s where he’d put perfect penciled lines to a scrap of paper as he...
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jamesp420
May 7, 20248 min read
Dirty Vowels
A cute little story I wrote many years ago...Enjoy. ... ‘O’ can be a very dirty little vowel, especially when a female voice is stringing...
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jamesp420
Mar 25, 20242 min read
A Corruption of Youth
“Here, read this,” my mother said and plopped a book down next to me. It was The Shining, by Stephen King. I was ten years old. A few...
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