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Frederick Fair, Day Seven: The Inevitability of Rain

by Shawn September 21, 2011

A little girl skips through the light rain, her brown curls clinging to her forehead. She has a lollipop in her mouth and a miniature American flag in her hand. She splashes from puddle to puddle, the soles of her shoes slapping against the wet ground. Her mouth moves in small flutters, and because I [...]

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Frederick Fair, Day 6: Another Time Machine

by Shawn September 20, 2011

The eight-year-old boy scans the horizon. His mom says they are close. He rubs the sleep from his eyes with small fists and yawns, pleasure swelling at the thought that it is Friday, and they are almost at the fair. He leans his face against the car window, his breath glazing the glass. Then he [...]

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“Them Preachers Don’t Know Nothin’”

by Shawn September 19, 2011

If my grandfather was still alive, he would wear black shoes like that, and an old black belt like that one, and probably even sport those grayish, navy-blue trousers. “Hey,” I shout to the man. “You need a drink?”

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Frederick Fair, Day One: The Flat Tire

by Shawn September 15, 2011

We pull up beside the old trailer. Its silver outside flakes off, like that rock with the oily skin. Rust seeps down from the top corners like old blood, and even from the ground I can see the tin strips from where my cousin patched the roof years ago. And the tire is flat. The [...]

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The Two Main Reasons I Started Blogging

by Shawn September 14, 2011

About 18 months ago, I started blogging. There were two main reasons for this:

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One of My Biggest Weaknesses

by Shawn September 12, 2011

Finishing things: traditionally, this is not one of my strengths. Before I had the opportunity to write for a living, I had the luxury of starting and re-starting and erasing and starting something new. What I realize now is that my avoidance of completing stories reflected a deeply-rooted fear: what if I finally finish something [...]

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Of Caskets and Memories

by Shawn September 7, 2011

Open caskets tend to disarm me. There’s a disconnect in my mind when death takes the person and still leaves the body. There they are. There they are not. What if, when someone died, they just disappeared? What if they vanished, and the only things we had left were pictures or memories? But in this [...]

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