FIRST THREE CHAPTERS Copyright © 2019 Karlyle Tomms All rights reserved First Edition PAGE PUBLISHING, INC. New York, NY First originally published by Page P...

Okay, Gillette does a commercial which chastises men for bad behavior, a shadow of the “#MeToo” movement. Some men react, “I don’t need Gillette to lecture m...

I labored over whether to write this for a couple of months. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I wanted to say, or in the final edit, that I have said everyth...

Even though my father was from southern California, I was born in the butt crack of nowhere, in northern Arkansas where my mother’s family is from. I was tol...

She eloped across the county line at fourteen, lied about her age, and married a man almost twice her age. In today’s world, he probably would have been arr...

On the day my father died, I found a black feather on my way back from lunch standing straight up in the grass as though it had been planted there. Having be...

Moments of Peace Karlyle Tomms 7/30/16 Pinnacle Mountain stands alone along the Arkansas River, and from the I-630...

I grew up with guns. My grandpa had rifles and shotguns hanging on the walls. They were propped on ten penny nails driven just far enough into the paneling t...

Three words came to mind the first time I saw her –weird, strange, and goofy. She was older than the rest of us. She had a minimum of ten, perhaps twenty y...

The eastern Ozarks of Arkansas are not quite as grand as those to the west. Here the Ozark Mountains begin to roll gradually into the Mississippi delta. The...

I understand hate. I have felt rage so intense that it incites to kill. I have felt seething, malignant resentment so extreme that it brought me to premedita...

(NOTE: I have been surprised by the number of people (All white people so far) who have completely missed the point of this essay. This is not a justificati...

Yesterday my aunt was laid to rest. Cold Arkansas wind sawed at our ears as we stood beside the grave site, an omen of snow later to fall. There beneath a sa...

Let’s get this straight. The entire human race is crazy. Every single one of us is insane right down to the very last one. There are just varying degrees of ...

A glass of wine, a magazine and the porch swing in warm weather, back against a pillow, wind chimes and hummingbirds. This is my definition of heaven. I do...

New Year—new beginnings. Everyone thinks about this transition point every year. Goals and resolutions are made, sometimes seriously, most often half-heart...

When I think of the events occurring on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson Missouri, I am struck by the realization that it only takes a single spark to ignite a fir...

Confessions From the Pumpkin Patch contains adult content. Discretion advised. by Karlyle Tomms Edited by Renee Minicozzi Cover image by Karlyle Tomms Copyri...