Articles by Dan Mulhollen
Short
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Of Horror and Pizzas
() cover story short fiction humor
Deadlines, day jobs, and distractions: they're all part of a writer's life. But here's a hint: don't mention pizza in front of non-writers when you have a story brewing!
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To The Ultimate Reaches
() cover story short fiction
Roger White is a trapped man. When someone comes to rescue him, will he recognize the face of a friend or of an enemy, and will he have the strength and the courage to fight his way out?
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Night and Me
() short nonfiction essay
In the latest hours of the night and the earliest hours of the day, a writer can find the solitude necessary for a long inward journey of the mind...
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NaNoWriMo 2006: The Annual Literary Insanity
() short nonfiction essay
Write an entire novel in thirty days? Fine, the explanation behind it is that we're nuts.
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The Lives of Stores
() short nonfiction essay
There was a time when feet were the primary mode of transportation, and everything that people needed was within walking distance of home. Then came cars, and "progress" ...
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Rendezvous at Ernie's
() short fiction
The neon sign above the door hasn't worked for twenty years, but even so, one night in thirty Ernie's Diner illuminates two lives with love.
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May Day at St. Angelica
() cover story short fiction
All spring we wait for the celebrations of May Day, the music, the dance, the celebration of our community ...
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A Media Frenzy
() short fiction humor
It's disgusting to see someone's ear bitten off, but you had darn well better watch what you have to say about it afterwards!
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A Walk in the Rain
() cover story short fiction
Moving to Lincoln Heights was a compromise, at best. I was born and raised in the city. I liked the convenience of having dozens of small stores all within walking distance. Mina had lived most of her life in a gated community; the sort of place where you needed a six-figure income and a relative in politics to even apply for residence. To her, I lived in a ghetto; to me, she lived in a police state. There were truths to both opposing opinions neither of us wanted to admit.
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The Mythic West
() nonfiction essay
Riding along behind a herd of cattle, the dust coating your hat and your sun-weathered face, you get a sense of how little stocks and bonds matter. It's the sky, and the movement of the earth beneath your horse's hooves that matter, and how they let your heart fill all that space that gives your life a meaning ...
- It's the Little Things That Remind Me of Her () cover story short fiction
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A July Christmas
() cover story short fiction
There is a time and a season for everything, and if fools cannot manage to figure out that there is a time for living and a time for loving, then ... why ... people will have to seek out that time of light and happiness when they can.
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The Captive
() cover story short fiction
The open window at the top of the tower looks out upon the face of the Moon, the only face in view. Is this the world? Is this a dream? These are the questions asked hour by hour, day by day, each moment defying what was known to be normal in my family ...
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The Living Dead: A Rebuttal
() short fiction humor
What Hollywood has to say about zombies is purely theatrical ...
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Another Christmas Eve at the Bar
() short fiction
The people have changed as the years have gone by, at least in names and faces. Only two things are the same, the bar itself, and the loneliness of the lives of its patrons. Anthony Driscol and Keri Sherwood have decided to change that ...
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Get Political: Digging Deep
() short fiction humor
Ace Piker Press reporter Dan Mulhollen tells how he saved the face of America in the 2008 presidential primaries.
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Unexpected Valentines
() cover story short fiction
Looking back through your years, examining the relationships you had -- how many can you remember, and how many would you rather forget?
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A Youthful Indiscretion
() short fiction
There are layers to every story, and the richness and fascination only get better when you start to hear about what happens on each layer ...
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Pilgrimage
() short fiction
While leaves drift from the trees, a pilgrimage must be made, a pilgrimage that will draw old memories to a close, and set feet on a path into the future. Originally appeared 2006-10-23.
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It Begins With You
() nonfiction essay
Originally appeared 2007-10-22.
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A Little Match Girl
() fiction spoof
Dan Mulhollen tokes a new look at an old classic fairy tale: "The Little Match Girl."
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Gretel and Hansel
() fiction spoof
Dan twists another fairy tale into something to make your eyes bug out.
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Avalon Springs
() cover story fiction
What is art? Is it only the things that end up in a museum? Only the things that can be sold in a reputable house? What about the crayon scrawl that a mother carefully saves because it was the first drawing her child made, with colors so bold and beautiful? What about the thoughts that occur in measured order, flowing from a pen onto paper, portrait of the shadows of a heart?
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Avalon Springs, Part 2
() short fiction
Are words only words, or can they be something more? And is a gesture only a gesture, or can it be a statement of belief? And who is it who really has the right to decide what meanings words or gestures have for each person?
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The Were-Ditz
() short fiction
It was the night Andrea spent all month dreading. The strange affliction overshadowed her with its power, and the consequences might follow her until the next full moon ...
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A Towel and Me
() cover story short fiction humor
I suppose I should have been thankful for the holiday. Normally, people would have been driving to work, delivering supplies, and making all the noises that come with the start of the new day. Most of them would have wondered what this crazy woman was doing standing in the middle of a traffic circle wearing only a towel.
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The Monster They Made Me
() cover story short fiction
When betrayal and cruelty are the hands on the potter's wheel, the resulting vessel will take on a sadly distorted shape, and hold depths of pain. Poured out, the contents will drench all...
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Life in the Necropolis
() cover story fiction
The world has changed, and the dead are no longer "departed" ... do they live among us, or do we die among them ..?
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The Man in the Front Parlor
() cover story fiction
Behind one door is someone who is always willing to lend an ear to matters of the heart or of hope, someone the entire family can count on to be present for advice or for company ...
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In a Different World
() cover story short fiction fantasy
The co-workers leaning against the back of the building smoking, the office hens with their cheap and heavy perfume, the copy machine spewing wrinkled paper and toner dust, the supervisor who thinks that "managing" is done by "threatening workers" -- is that what you really want?
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The Interrogation
() short fiction humor
Who is it, waiting there, knowing so much about that private life?
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A Case of Amnesia
() short fiction
Confronted with an unexpected event, do we step forward to embrace the adventure -- or is it better to remain safe?
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Mirror Image
() short fiction
No longer young, no longer innocent. What she sought in the world was more of an illusion than what she saw before her ...
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Off Course
() short fiction relationships
There is a turn of the road where everything seems to be ... well not exactly what you expected. In fact, some times the path you take makes you what someone else might not have expected ...
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A Trip Into the Mind's Attic
() short fiction
Was it memory? An overheard story? Or echoes of something that once might have been?
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Booth Babes
() cover story fiction sexism business
When business is booming, picking and choosing your sales tactics is a viable path. But when the company is tanking, and jobs are on the line, you go with what works -- even skills that are a bit rusty ...
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Gray
() short science fiction
Color matters in a population ... at least until the population realizes that color doesn't matter, and that we're all people under whatever skin color we wear ...
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Mister Dunwitty's Oversight (or How To Be an Edwardian Hack)
() short fiction
Alas, Dunwitty was Dunwitty, and Miss Haversham was ... well, she was dismissing him, wasn't she?
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A Night With a Witch
() short fiction witch
"This time of year," she said, her voice soft, yet possessing an alarming severity, "the curtain between the worlds is thin. Rips do occur..." An oh, what a rip it was ...
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Time Flies
() short fiction fantasy
A sense of place is important. How many accidents happen every day because someone takes some sort of wrong step?
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The Christmas Grouch
() short fiction
Bah! Humbug! Where are those blasted Christmas lights?
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An Amazing Bar of Soap
() short fiction fantasy
Who are you really? What you see in the mirror, or the reflection in your own heart?
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The Street Fair
() short fiction science fiction time travel
Yes, sometimes it seems, you can go back, and things can change ... especially if you've done some changing yourself ...
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The Beachcombers
() short fiction science fiction
The aliens are part of our world now, but will their strangeness ever be integrated fully into our culture?
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The Glass Heart
() short fiction
The item of the highest value is the unbroken promise of love ...
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Azure Glade
() short fiction fantasy
Censorship is not necessarily a bad thing. However, you have to consider who is doing the censoring and whether they are doing it for the common good, or because it gives them power ...
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Beep
() short fiction humor
Oh, well, we've all experienced something like this, haven't we?
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A Second Chance
() short fiction alternate reality
It was like having a rug pulled out from under your feet. And yet, the fall itself taught a lesson about balance ..
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Largely An Inconvenience
() short fiction post apocalyptic
The world ends, with a bang, a whisper, and a Nazi pie?
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From a Different Perspective
() short fiction
Certainly it is best to perceive truth and goodness as we go along, but some times we have to learn it the hard way ...
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Lauren and Louise
() short fiction
The stage door was almost perfectly an entrance for the doors Lauren found shut in her personal life ...
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The Last Sad Man in America
() cover story short fiction
"Political correctitude," they decided, "means that the pursuit of happiness is mandatory and literal." ... And the only Right you have had better be the far one!
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The Unknown City
() cover story short fiction
What keeps the bricks and stones in place isn't just mortar; what makes the lights shine and the machinery hum isn't just electricity. What will you see if you choose to look more closely?
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With No Announcement
() short fiction
Who is this woman, and why has she suddenly taken my house by storm?
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Paradise of Sorts
() short fiction
It was elite, it was private, it was ... perhaps not quite enough of a good thing ...
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Good Morning :)
() cover story short fiction
The path to the future is paved with cryptic scrawls ...oops!
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A Quick Trip
() cover story short fiction
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yes, when our fear generates paperwork that people can't surmount, that's scary indeed ...
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Bigger
() short fiction humor spam
A short tale about a short man who is shortly to become ...
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I Was Just the Sequel
() cover story short fiction
An eye for an eye, the old law goes. Is it Justice being served, or that Revenge is tasting so sweet? Suddenly both half-blind, what does each side now see?
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Uncle Mort's Funeral
() short fiction
When you have a large and convoluted family, maybe discretion is also the better part of interaction ...
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A Small Bit of 1947
() cover story short fiction newspapers
No one can know what the future holds, though we can make some educated guesses. And the past ... that's out of our reach as well ...
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Life Among the Wraiths
() cover story short fiction sci-fi
Almost anyone who has ever suffered from insomnia knows that nothing good happens at three in the morning, but even reruns of "Gilligan's Island" are better than a kidnapping by malignant skeletons ...
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Life Among the Wraiths, Part 2
() serial fiction fantasy
Only one man will survive and be rewarded great rank -- the rest will become creatures without hope or dreams ...
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Thirty Months On
() short fiction relationships
As time wears on, some of the painful broken edges wear down, until something interesting can slide into a heart ...
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The Mayan Bathroom Wall Calendar
() cover story short fiction humor
Does it mean that we don't have to bother trying to go to work any more? The date is coming up in less than two weeks, so there's just enough time to empty the savings and visit the Caribbean, right? Or should you invest your capital and prepare to sell garments that say, "The End of the World Came and All I Got Was this Dopey T-shirt"?
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Orientation Day
() cover story science fiction future
What if you woke up tomorrow and it was seven centuries later, and a lot of problems had been solved? Would you long for the past or...?
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Bumble -- The Site for Fans
() cover story short fiction fanfic
"Remember that when you post something publicly on the internet, there is a good chance it will never go away. Post responsibly!" --Kit Klienman.
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Not the Same
() cover story fiction Prohibition
Once they had been afraid, but they fought bravely. Once they had been shut down, but they survived on their wits and their talents. And now...
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The Rise and Fall of a Haunted House
() cover story fiction eccentricity
When someone looks at the front of your house, who do they see?
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Family Tree -- With Weeds
() cover story fiction family
Genealogy is a funny thing. You can see echoes of the parent in the child, odd traits revealed by the past. And when you begin to investigate your lineage, you find there are some questions that float to the surface as well...
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Naked in the Freakshow
() cover story fiction relationship mistakes
It's right to stand up for a principle, isn't it? Only whose principles do we choose, and where do they come from?
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A Dangerous Man?
() cover story fiction politics censorship
Is being politically correct over-rated? When is opinion a crime?
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Schoolday Memories (no, I wasn't paying attention)
() cover story fiction junior high
Do you ever stop and think about what it was like back then, when the future was still an unknown iceberg in the Ocean of Life?
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The Lost Treasure
() fiction fable
What a little princess she was!
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Intervue
() cover story fiction life
Sometimes the best plan of action is to just be up front and genuine...
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Something I Forgot
() fiction relationship humor
Was it this? ... No, that's fine. Was it that? ... No, no, that couldn't be it. Didn't I take care of those yesterday? Of course I did ... but ...
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Of Equal Dignity
() cover story fiction politics
Good thing they didn't have Facebook back then...
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Fake News or Giving The Customers What They Want?
() fiction politics journalism
"Read all about it!" Does that include opinion and fantasy as well as news?
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Re-Learning
() cover story fiction future
This future is closer than you think...
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The Merry Reign of King Cole
() fiction humor
Go ahead, look him up on Wikipedia...
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Peace in Our Time
() cover story fiction politics humor
MAGA!
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End of Friendships
() cover story satire humor
There's a reason the demographics of the F-book are changing...
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Hot August (K)Nights
() cover story short fiction silly
Are you ever ready for something like this?
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The Big Dump
() cover story fiction humor satire
You only wish it was far-fetched...
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Expiration Date
() cover story fiction death
When the quality of the product goes isn't what you think it should be, do you just throw it out?
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The Unexpected Rise and Inevitable Fall of the Gnat
() cover story fiction humor satire
As Seen on TV!!!
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A Bodysuit of Lies
() cover story fiction
Do your fictions tell more about you than you think?
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Back When People Used the Internet To Converse
() essay
Maybe you remember this, too...
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A Trophy for the Inquisitor
() cover story fiction rebellion
Honesty? Compassion? Whatever happened to those?
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Rumplestiltskin's Revenge
() fiction humor satire
Doesn't sound all that far-fetched anymore...
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A Bureaucratic Mix Up
() cover story fiction humor satire
Ever wonder how someone can prove who they really are?
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The Dead Shall Walk With Me Tonight
() cover story fiction horror
If the secret is taken to the grave, there's only one way to uncover it...
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Uncle Jake's Odds and Ends Shoppe
() cover story fiction life
Was it the only solution?
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Piggy
() fiction personal battle
There are reasons for humanity's interest in talismans...
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Remembering Uncle John
() essay memoir
Remembering a name, imagining what a life could have been, can lead one to ponder the tracks of one's own life.
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The Social Justice Uplifters
() fiction social issues
Why does everyone have to choose a side?
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The Purple Bucket List
() fiction humor
Might solve a lot of problems...
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An Embarrassment of Riches
() humor fable
Just make sure you do the dishes afterwards...
- Nothing Matters -- And So What If It Does? () cover story fiction
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A Halloween Carol
() cover story fiction humor
Time to stock up on candy...
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Frankenstein's Mortuary and House of Ill Repute
() fiction humor
Always returning to history and the classics...
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Roadkill
() flash fiction
...and he'll never forget 'Brooke'...
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Bot
() flash fiction
A stranger would just walk away from you...
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Something I Started?
() fiction humor
Writers of fiction -- dangerous creatures!
Poem
- Three Simple Words () poem unrhymed
- Dream Colors () poem rhymed
- Old Ways () poem un
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A Sonnet
() poem unrhymed
Poetry for a cold winter day, when love and Spring seem so far from your heart.
- Sonnet () poem rhymed sonnet
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Beneath the Similes
() poem unrhymed
It's like this; it's like that -- but all the words point to only one thing for which our whole being strives.
- Beyond the Similes () poem unrhymed
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The Subtle "Wow"
() poem unrhymed
No crashing, no shouting, no furious passion ... there is something far greater, and far more precious ...
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Hoping for Fog
() poem, unrhymed
There are regrets, there are memories, and love always has one thing more: hope...
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The Maybe-Rose
() poetry, rhymed
Some blossoms have a set season, but with others, you can't tell if there will be fragrance or thorns...
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A Little Exercise
() poem unrhymed
Poem, unrhymed, by Dan Mulhollen.
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A Dream of Seven Years
() poem, unrhymed
As we wait for Spring to fully arrive, Dan Mulhollen writes about hope.
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Imagining You
() poem, unrhymed
Far apart, so much seems impossible, but yet ...
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The Man With Red Tights
() cover story poetry, rhymed, commentary
If everyone looks the same, you may need to adjust your glasses and take a look at some new possibilities ...
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A Time for Giving Up
() poem unrhymed
Hope is lost, and no amount of rhetoric can salve the bitterness.
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A Dreaded Spring
() poem, rhymed
"...Wake up counting dreams so quickly gone, And wondering were some of them for me?" Dan Mulhollen explores the edge of loss.
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Lent
() poem, unrhymed
The spiritual journey, the spiritual eye.
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Things That Go Bump In The Night
() poem unrhymed
Poetry considering the things that we find ourselves listening to ...
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How Many Thoughts
() poem unrhymed
Nobody truly realizes, how many thoughts ...
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Chance
() poem unrhymed
The athlete is in range, he eyes the orange rim ...
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Talking About Dreams
() poem unrhymed
When dreams are not the same ...
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Being Alone
() poem unrhymed
Shut the door ... leave behind the bothersome world ...
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The Graveyard Gate
() poem rhymed
I stand outside the graveyard gate, And wonder if I'm tempting fate ... (Originally appeared 2006-11-13)
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Victims of Ourselves
() poem unrhymed
... we pretend our clothes are not threadbare, and covered in graveyard mud...
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To A Convenience Store Clerk
() poem unrhymed
...No names, no pasts, almost no world exists beyond the automatic door...
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A Liturgical Infatuation
() poem unrhymed
"We met in Common Time; Those unimaginatively-named, but warm weeks ..."
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To My Muse
() poem unrhymed
"A woman of soft mornings ... the warmth there in your smile"
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Today Is Not the Worst Day of My Life
() poem unrhymed
'Today is not the worst day of my life. <br />Nobody I know has died <br />or suffered serious injury ...'
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Early Morning Walk
() poem unrhymed
'...one-thousand statistical mysteries.<br /> I wonder who they are<br /> and wonder if I really want to know...'
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How Many Words
() poem unrhymed
Poetry to think about ...
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The Tales in the Stars
() poem rhymed
"...Reflections seeming there both deep and vast..."
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A Couple Parakeets
() poem unrhymed birds
A poetic thought about cage birds.
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Not Really Mysteries
() poem unrhymed
"...are chains meant to be yanked?...
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A Metaphorical Prison
() poem unrhymed
"...return to the tatters we've ripped apart..."
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The Final Line
() poem rhymed
"...any poem That's worth the time...
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One of Those Women
() poem unrhymed
"...something you want to make real..."
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Return to Niagara
() poem rhymed
"Forty-nine years ago I visited the Falls...
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Eclipse
() poem
"...This will occur on some known date And nothing more than a cosmic note..."
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Advice to a Young Poet
() poem rhymed
"...there's something to say about something warm..."
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So You Want a Poem of Death
() poem rhymed
"...lessons that I think are wrong..."
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The Naked Truth
() poem rhymed
Inspired by the 1915 silent film, "Hypocrites." A link below the poem will take curious readers to a YouTube video of the movie.
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A Seasonal Sonnet
() poem rhymed
"...For what strange season's mystery is this?..."
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On Growing Old
() poem rhymed
"...To make writing an almost daily thing..."
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On Going with the Flow
() poem unrhymed
"...your pre-conceived notions: For which you can never be wrong?..."
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A Strange Noise
() cover story poem rhymed
Listen -- did you hear it, too?
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The Clockwork of Our Souls
() poem unrhymed
"...Imagination not restrained by our frontiers..."
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Penguins
() poem
"...I honestly can't tell you why..."
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Happy Endings
() poem unrhymed
"...Frost clings to the air..."
Comics
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Peek of the Week 072
() photo art
A new snow on an Ohio neighborhood.
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Peek of the Week 084
() photo art
Sometimes the only place to put the snow is on top of the car!
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Peek of the Week 124
() photo art
Heavy snow in Ohio lines a residential sidewalk.
Nonfiction
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Pomegranate Memories
() nonfiction food memoir
A young boy learns that there is more to sweet autumn cuisine than leftover Halloween candy.
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Butter Nut Horns
() food
Dan Mulhollen shares a holiday recipe remembered from his youth: Butter Nut Horns.
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Return to Limburger
() essay limburger cheese
Who knew that a ghost of Christmas past could smell so much?
Essay
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On Salads
() nonfiction essay
When it comes to salads, Dan Mulhollen considers them at their most useful merely as food for thought.
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Why I Write
() essay writing
Daydreaming happens. Sometimes we think it's a waste of time, but at others ... specifically at times when the blank page beckons, daydreams are shown to have sparkling facets like precious gems.
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Clyde the Rat
() essay pets rat
Good thing Dad liked him more than Ariel did...
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How the Internet Is Destroying Itself From Within
() essay opinion
All you have to do is make a statement...
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Two Parks in Two Days
() essay memoir
It was fun, and it was a part of summer...
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What Did I Do When the Lights Went Out?
() essay
Ahh, candlelight...
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Going with the Flow
() essay memoir
A difficult time, but still a cautionary reminder...
Opinion
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The Untaught History
() essay
Almost every history student in high school could say that what they were taught was dry and seemed to have no point. Over this summer break, maybe history teachers ought to worry lest about the text book and think about teaching what really happened.
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Beware of Writers
() cover story essay humor writing spoof
You see them in coffee-shops, fingers poised above the keys of their well-worn laptops, their gazes intense. You know about the writers' way of life ... or do you?
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Personal (if irreverent) Reflections on Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"
() essay opinion
Ah, Christmas -- and the traditional story of Scrooge...
Serial
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Poutine and Clair
() cover story serial fiction sexuality love
Chapter One: A desire to experience something new leads to travel, and the road traveled -- where will that take the weary wanderer..?
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Poutine and Clair Part Two
() serial fiction sexuality love
Luke takes a vacation and tries a new dish...
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Poutine and Clair Part Three
() serial fiction sexuality love
Who is this woman, so mysterious, so alluring...?
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Poutine and Clair Part Four
() serial fiction sexuality love
Clair was like an exotic adventure -- but when will that adventure take place? Is it time to re-assess a lifestyle that can allow it?
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Poutine and Clair Part Five
() serial fiction sexuality love
A dream come true -- Clair has appeared at Luke's door and brought some lively times with her. Now she wants to experience the psychological maze of Willoughby Castle...
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Poutine and Clair Part Six
() serial fiction sexuality love
Part Six of Seven. Clair goes forward with her idea of the initiation rite at Willoughby Castle...
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Poutine and Clair Part Seven
() serial fiction sexuality love
Conclusion. Clair's secret is out, and Luke is okay with it. But can two such different people live happily together?