Essays
RE-IMAGINING THE AMERICAN WEST FOR MODERN HORROR AUDIENCES
-in CrimeReads
“We live in precarious, uncertain times—on the edge of a knife you could say. Horror writers willing to hold a mirror up to society need to pay close attention. Some of this is happening in the American West. Gun barrels have been aimed at everyday citizens standing against legalized human trafficking. And many detainees have been sent to faraway detention centers in jungles that few Americans have ever seen. Feels like we’re one trigger-happy officer or suicide bomber away from the U.S. military firing on its own civilians. I’m terrified of this real-life horror story playing out . . .”
The Monstrous Bird
-in Nightmare Magazine’s The H Word
“I love birds, slipping into nature most days to observe some kind of their foraging or hunting behaviors. I’ve seen a red-eyed vireo, caterpillar in its bill, smacking its victim left and right against a branch until the thing stops wriggling. And then again for good measure. Seen wrens do the same thing against logs and even curbs. Grasshopper sparrows might play a game of gather the crickets and see how many they can stuff in their bills to take back to their nest. I’ve seen bald eagles tear into ducks and coots, their raw power on full display. There’s one that certainly plays the Grendel of our nearby lake. Their victims don’t suffer . . . much.”
CRAFTING THE REAL AND SURREAL IN ECO-HORROR
-in CrimeReads
“Our expedition, if you could call it that, was to find a whale head. The very idea of seeking out a head is surreal, odd, enticing, terrifying. It conjures both sad and monstrous imagery. We feel the pain of loss. We may see the horror of decay. Right away we ask questions, mainly: what will we see? Add a pristine sandy beach filled with marshmallowy snowy plovers, cute seaducks, and lone fishermen staring at the blue-green horizon line. Whale heads don’t seem to belong.”
SOUTH BAKERSFIELD’S CONFEDERATE REMAINS
-in Boom California (University of California Press)
“We heard the crash from our living rooms and front yards and now the community mobs the street. Years later I think this must have been what watching the Civil War was like: a community coming together to observe the collision of gunpowder, steel and flesh. Only, this is our poor man’s take. The barrio version. The working class.”
COMMENTARY: HOW ONE LATINO COMMUNITY MAY BEGIN TO SHED SIX DECADES OF CONFEDERATE AND SOUTHERN IMAGERY
-in Latino Rebels (Futuro Media)
“An oppressive political shadow drips onto the landscape, one seemingly intertwined with excessive smog and decaying apartment rentals. The power structure is Trump happy, a lust-filled fervor infects them, one that the unwary might attribute to some kind of Viagra for political xenophobia, powered and fueled by little elephant-shaped pills. The Republican base is increasingly challenged by a growing Latino population caught within the intersection of the Chicano and Immigration Reform movements, a majority-Latino citizenry who have one purpose in common: to seek a life free from oppressive ideologies spread by U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s allegiance to the Trump Administration.”
A LETTER ON WHY BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA’S PLANTATION ELEMENTARY, SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL, AND RACIST STREET NAMES SHOULD DISAPPEAR
-in Medium
“One of your brown friends lives on Raider Drive, another on Shenandoah Drive. These streets are all you know. Your mom doesn’t let you wander far. “You need to be safe,” she says. “Stay within the boundaries.” You ride bikes down these streets. They become part of your daily dialogue. Your parents mail is stamped with these names. This small world is all you know, you have no idea of the intention of the planning that went into your neighborhood, how it created a ghost-white image over your every move, how it was meant to be a white area that towered over distant poor Black neighborhoods whose taxed incomes were funneled to white schools.”
PERSPECTIVE: GEORGE FLOYD AUTOPSY APPEARS SIMILAR TO CALIFORNIA BRUTALITY CASE
-in Latino Rebels (Futuro Media)
“George calls for his mother. He groans as if his own car is atop his neck bones, let alone the knee on his neck, knees everywhere on his body, crushing down, his arms twisted. This over a twenty-dollar bill, in an America where twenty counterfeit bucks won’t get you much. Neither will Trump’s pandemic economic stimulus, which left millions struggling, wondering if rent and food money will drop through the bomb bay doors of some magical red-white-and-blue Space Force vessel.”