When I was a teen my father hated that I wouldn’t remove my nose from the book I had in my hand long enough to see the sights on our summer vacations. (Well, I did, but only to appease him or to see something worth seeing.) He was fond of Read more…
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…
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…
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…
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…
It was midmorning, the sun was hot and the day promising, when I spotted a Baskin-Robbins on the street corner. Happy memories of Jamoca Almond Fudge and Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream came flooding back from childhood. It had been years since I’d been there. No time like the present, Read more…
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here if only a man had been involved in my conception. On the contrary, there would have been no conception. So why is it that women are being pushed back into the kitchen, when it comes to making decisions on matters that involve: 1) Read more…