Essays

Harvey explains the photo:"...my dad, me and my older son, Andy -- my dad's first grandchild -- as we leave to take Andy fishing for the first time."

Barry Kirwan shares some ideas about life after death in science fiction stories in this week's featured blog.

Which would you rather have? Money or happiness?

If you don't know what life is about, good and bad alike, how will you prepare for it?

In this week's Featured Blog, Wendy Robards talks about the charitable organization Gone Reading, and its work providing funding for libraries around the world.

This week's featured blog by J.J. Green tells us that "...evidence of our ancestors lies yet to be found, beneath ice and water."

Have we evolved into a culture of fantasy and nit-picking?

Should a person know to pronounce words correctly when they visit a foreign land?

Don't give up on being young -- you can't bring it back when it's gone.

Should we complain about misfortunes?

The Piker Press is pleased to begin featuring blog entries from our listed bloggers. This week, Sam Gridley and his tangled web of great fortune...

JH Mae is a feature journalist and short fiction writer based in rural northern New York.

Bench Warming in New York is a seating chart to a collection of real-life New York dioramas. Have a seat, relax, and let the city tell its stories and entertain you.

Don't just do something, sit there. -- Zen Proverb

...And pretty much all Wikipedia has to say about this "census-designated place" is that it has 19,299 residents. Nick Noyes knows more than that about Sun Valley.

J.J. Green is a British freelance science writer currently living in Taipei, Taiwan, where she writes on the natural environment and imaginary worlds.

Harvey Silverman is a retired physician living in Manchester, NH. He writes primarily for his own enjoyment.

But what if it was a big load of Elvis blankets? Or designer shoes?

A Mother's Day gift for your sweetie? Here's some timely advice...

Anna Murray is a nationally recognized technology consultant, speaker and blogger. One of an extraordinarily rare species -- a woman who owns a successful software-development company -- she loves to combine her two passions, technology and writing.

Hang on to your luggage, you're in for the ride of your life ...

Dianne Post is an attorney who worked for twenty years representing battered women and children in family courts. Since 1998 she has been doing international human rights work focused primarily on gender-based violence. Her writings include articles, columns, law review articles, and short stories for which she has won several prizes.

Rebecca Morean is a mother of four, raises a small heard of goats and makes cheese, teaches writing and composition at Sinclair Community College, and wants to right wrongs by writing about wrongs. She has published over two dozen short stories, and her articles and fiction have appeared in <i>Salon, Crone, Kalliope</i>, and <i>Mississippi Mud</i> among others. Her novel, <i>In the Dead of Winter</i> (St. Martin's Press) was picked up as a series by Breese Books in England and is about the daughter of Sherlock Holmes. She is currently the president of the Antioch Writers' Workshop in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

A tragic affliction, and wouldn't you know it, it's not even seasonal ...

We can blame the wrecked Mercedes on the man in his underwear ...

Phillip Donnelly continues his examination of Ho Chi Minh City, looking both at the past and the future of the place remembered as "Saigon..."

Tim Henderson describes what it is like to be transported to medieval times by Medieval Times.

Grief is an emotion we dread, yet need to embrace ...

April of 2009 brings the Piker Press another anniversary as a weekly ezine. To kick off our eighth year, this issue presents the thoughts of some of our writers about their writing itself. Many thanks to all who have contributed to the Piker Press in the past, and best wishes to all who will share their words and images in the Piker Press in the future.

The letters change, the answers add up ... writing can be like a word puzzle.