Jim Stitzel

Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of Words

Excerpts from Life

Disdain for Facebook and All Things Social Media

Disdain for Facebook and All Things Social Media

I've been writing a lot lately here on my blog. It helps that I can now generate unique feature images for my content, thanks to some new features in the Jetpack plugin I use to support my website. I prefer to write here because it's my space, configured the way I...

Of a Love for Speculative Fiction

Of a Love for Speculative Fiction

I have loved speculative fiction ever since I can remember. As a kid I was reading on a grown-up level by the time I was in fifth grade, so I was reading novels by Dean Koontz and Stephen King, Nelson DeMille, and a whole host of others. Not everything I read at that...

Motivational Lows and Daily Living

Motivational Lows and Daily Living

I admit it. I haven't done very well at self-care this past week. It's not that I'm struggling with my mental health, really. More, it's down to the fact that my motivation levels have been low the last week or two now. For example, I have trash that's piled up a bit,...

Fiction

Critter

Critter

I have a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. That's where it lives. The critter, if you can call it that. It burrowed into my torso, and it took up residence there. All I can see of it is its mouth, sticking out of my abdomen, and it is insatiably hungry. I...

Crow

Crow

The crow talks to me. It sits on the road sign, with its black eyes, its black beak, and its black feathers, and it speaks to me. I don’t understand the words — they’re in bird, of course. But the words come, all the same. They take up space inside my mind,...

Pain

Pain

The lingering pain. It's all I can think about. It dwells in my consciousness like an open wound, even though there is no injury to be found. It's like fire in my flesh, a deep, crippling fury that makes me lose my sanity at times. I never should have made a deal with...