P Squared Books

desert

Desert Stuff

It is hot. Like, July hot. It isn't the hottest summer ever, but I'd say the temperature is probably over a hundred at seven p.m. I'm in my kitchen, and I look out my back door. I see something. Big. Flesh colored. Wait,

summer

A Heavy 65 Pounds

A couple of years ago, my husband and I met a friend of ours to go camping. She brought her dog, who we will call Esther. Esther is a very pretty pit bull, who weighs what her guardians describe as a heavy sixty-five pounds. My husband, my friend, and Esther

rural life

What is the real problem?

Once, I moved to a new place. The house was on what initially seemed like a quiet rural road. Then I realized that while the road didn't have a ton of traffic, the traffic it had was really fast and really loud. And while sometimes it was just

desert

Overheard in a Trendy Town

Standing in line at a sandwich place, a woman wearing bright red lipstick and an ankle-length, denim coat with a faux fur collar, a wide brimmed hat, and white snakeskin boots smokes angrily. She's yelling at a man who looks like he's woken up as a

horror

Just Nope

I got invited to pitch a horror movie once. Which was cool, but a little outside of my wheelhouse. First, I didn't know how to pitch, so learning how to do it was a big deal, but more frighteningly, I had to watch a bunch of horror movies

horror

The Horror Of Teeth

The day before I was moving to another state, we were cleaning out the fridge and we made a fridge-clean-out-cheese-plate. There were tomatoes, olives, pickles, cheese, and a variety of other things. I took a bite of the cheese, and I felt something hard in it. I took the half

summer

Mountain Biking

I'm not very good at biking. I know that sounds weird, but I've never been great at it. I'm fairly athletic, but biking and throwing things have never been my jam. Once, I had a job where I had to ride a bike. Often,

horror

Subject: IT Help Tickets

I used to work at this place that couldn't keep an IT person on staff. So for two years we didn't have an IT person. There was an entire six months where I couldn't print a document. When I asked if we could have

desert

Found: Mannequin Head

If you lost your mannequin's head, its on the side of the highway, approximately one-hundred and ten miles north of Mexico, in the vicinity of one of the rainbow houses, but not too far from the jail. This is no ordinary mannequin head. He comes with a full

desert

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day. KT comes into town. There's a garage sale down the road from my house. We park before the rambling chainlink fence, the yard of dirt packed with sun-bleached stuff. Tables of broken, outdated strips of plastic and rusty metal fill our

desert

Seen in the Desert

While getting my hair cut in a hair salon that also happens to be a museum about hair, three Gen Z'ers walked in to peruse the shop's various bits and baubles, because that phrase was actually made for the things in this place. The young women

cats

Credit Card Fraud is No Joke

A long time ago, before I was married, my then fiancé, lived in a very remote area. This place he in which he lived was actually the physical address of the depths of despair, and it was particularly horrifying in the winter. No cell service, no Internet, only a few

travel

The No Fly List

I went on a train ride recently. It was supposed to be a forty-three hour ride, but it turned into a fifty-three hour ride. And I was in coach, which was wild, but it was a hundred dollars to get from California to New Orleans, so I was like, well,

horror

The Reading

There is a cool independent bookstore by my house, and one night, they held a reading by several local authors. I recruited some people, and we attended. Now, it's important to know that while I love writing and reading, I don't love poetry. Not like I

Foo

My Nightmare or Yours?

I had a roommate. One morning she came out of her room and looked at me with great suspicion. I thought she was just in the pre-caffeinated phase. Which was true. She got some coffee. Then continued to look at me with entirely too much scrutiny. "Why are you

travel

How you Find Yourself

#vanlife It's a thing. I see them all the time. Vans in their various sizes and values– Sprinter vans with surf racks, decommissioned plumber rigs with the only back window boarded in plywood, the previous's owner's buisness lettering still visible. The van occupants, like

running

You did this to yourself

A few years ago, before moving to a land with no water, my husband and I got into trail running. Or, I guess you could say, my husband got me into trail running, and I would run with him. One weekend we went camping, and then decided to do a

high school

It's Fine. Time Did Stop

When I was in high school, my brother and I commuted about forty-five minutes one way to and from school. We spent a lot of time in the car, and this pre-dated satellite radio, smart phones, Audible.com, and all of the other ways a person can now listen to

travel

In Another Life

In another life, I had a friend. We flew to Iceland, rented a car, and drove around the island. It was April. We were only a year or so out of college. People were confused by us. They kept saying, "But you're Americans. Shouldn't you

winter

I Worked in this Place Once...

It's a place that a lot of people know about. I'm not going to name it, but I will call it Foo, short for Foofaraw, which, according to the Internet means, A great deal of fuss or attention given to a minor matter. Which isn'

Zach

Just before Valentine's Day, Zach Milligan died while ice climbing in Canada. If you Google Zach's name, many articles will reference his ski descent of Half Dome, which funny because when I asked Zach about that ski, he shrugged it off like he was just kind

desert

Cash... It's not really my thing

When my parents came to visit, we went walking through the trendier part of town. We came across the grocery store my friend likes to call "By people from L.A., for people from L.A." And to say it's a grocery store is kind of

Foo

Cats...

One day, back when I lived in Foo, I was walking home from work. The black oak trees that lined the road shading the air above me, their arching branches creating dappled sunlight at my feet. Thinking about nothing, I moseyed forward and then whoosh the air behind me flared.

desert

Desert News

Happenings in Desert Valley. * The first ever drive through dog nail clinic is up and running. Drive through, put your dog's toes out the window, and Boom! Nails trimmed. Across the street from Stake and Shake. * The IHOP was the site of a SWAT raid for a catalytic

desert

The Circle K

There are two types of experiences at a Circle K gas station. Either you see someone's ass or you almost die. This is especially true for desert Circle K's. There is one Circle K that's the last gas station for hours. Go East from