Almost 34,000 people downloaded my book in just three days! So I’m going to write a quick piece about the flurry of weekend downloads for Sister of Silence. First of all, I should preface this with a disclaimer: I tend to become easily excited. My brood have often rolled their Read more
Originally this column was going to be about the results of my own meeting last night, to discuss plans for the workshops I want to hold to help empower women who are living with domestic violence. But today I received an email that should make many people happy, especially the Read more
I was born in California and had I grown up there, I’m certain my life would have turned out quite different. For one thing, I’d be a surfer. A water baby at heart, you couldn’t keep me away from the Pacific Ocean if I had grown up in the Bay Read more
But Will She Be His Last? The years have been hard on Dennis Ervin. But they’ve been even harder on the women who have loved him. Denny and I are the same age, we attended three years together at our alma mater, West Preston High School, and he once dated Read more
It takes a lot to make a grown man cry. Especially in Preston County, where they just don’t. Centuries of struggle and tribulation have rendered these macho Mountaineers strong and stoic, when it comes to showing such emotion. But on Friday, April 27, as the lid on Shannon Stafford’s white Read more
Court documents prove Nathan Mitchell has history of abuse; Facebook posts raise other questions Five years of fear forced 25-year-old Kristin Thompson to keep mum about her own abuse. While she remains terrified of her former abuser, she says she must speak up, because she’s afraid that silence may have Read more
Shannon Stafford was holding a cherished love letter from her would-be fiancé when she was buried inside a white casket last Friday. Stafford was executed just six days earlier outside a Morgantown, W.Va., Wal-Mart, while her two-year-old daughter Faith was several yards away at the time. Police later allowed the Read more
Just three miles from where Shannon Stafford rested in her white casket Friday morning, there’s a huge billboard you can’t miss, just as you leave Masontown, W.Va. It urges Prestonians to help prevent child abuse, saying: “It’s your turn to make a difference.” Everyone who drives by is encouraged to Read more
It seems like everyone wants to be the next Howard Stern, saying things simply for shock value. I don’t do that. I don’t make shock statements. But sometimes I’m saying more than meets the eye. Like last week, when I said Jordan Powers should apologize to James Hooker’s family. Several Read more
A 12:06 a.m. phone call this morning reminded me that today is, indeed a special day. For more reasons than the obvious one, that being the release of the “Sister of Silence: Silent No More” book trailer. The phone call was from my son, whose name is “Slade” in my Read more