Love and hate hold hands always so it made natural sense that they'd get confused by upset married folk in the wee hours once in a while and a nosebleed or bruised breast might result. But it just seemed proof that a great foulness was afoot in the world when a no-strings roll in the hay with a stranger led to chipped teeth or cigarette burns on the wrist.

I had been born shoved to the margins of the world, sure, but I had volunteered for the pits.

I've bumped into at least three people in town who all insist 'Winter's Bone' is about them.

Fading light buttered the ridges until shadows licked them clean and they were lost to nightfall.

He unscrewed the lid, set it on the dash, snorted from the bottle twice, banged the steering wheel, and said, 'You got to be ready to die every day - then you got a chance.'

I have a book in the pipeline of short stories. You want to hear an agent scream, say 'I'm thinking about doing a collection of short stories set in the Ozarks.

The opening novel of the 'Bayou Trilogy' was the first one I finished.