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Lead the Charge: Renting an Electric Car
I rented an electric car so you don’t have to. I’ve always loved the idea of electric cars. I mean, what’s not to like? Lower emissions (depending on your utility), instant acceleration, less maintenance (in theory), nearly silent operation—sign me up. However, there are still some hurdles to overcome, so I figured it would be several years before I found myself behind the wheel of an EV. So, you can imagine my surprise when, with no warning, I was suddenly driving a Tesla Model 3 on a recent a weekend trip. But first, let me back up. When I bought…
Keep readingThe Brutal, Delicate Art of Revision (Revised)
In my very first writing class in high school, my teacher once told us that “all writing is rewriting.” For some reason, I was certain that rule didn’t apply to me. All of my fiction was perfect from the moment it was written down, or so I thought. I scoffed at second and third drafts. I was in love with the raw, stream-of-consciousness quality of my first drafts and utterly convinced of my own brilliance. Maybe other people needed to revise, but I didn’t. It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized there was something to this revision…
Keep readingThe Birthday Resolutions Pick Up Steam
In the eleven or twelve years I’ve been making birthday resolutions, my success rate is mixed at actually following through on my goals. Some years, I check off each and every one, accomplishing everything I set out to do. Other years, I make little to no progress. I think the reason for this has less to do with the resolutions themselves and more to do with me. You see, when I first started documenting my annual ritual of creating resolutions for the coming year on my birthday, I would set out these grand, vague, life-changing milestones to hit—and I’d fall…
Keep readingThe First Loaf of the New Year: A Meditation on Bread-Making
It’s still dark outside as I weigh my flour. The light of the digital display on my kitchen scale glows blue and casts shadows across the mound of all-purpose and whole wheat flour in a glass bowl. I hold a meat thermometer under a stream of running water, adjusting the faucet handle by degrees in search of the perfect temperature before filling my Pyrex measuring cup and mixing the water with the flour to form a thick paste. Then, there’s time to relax while the flour absorbs the moisture, before salt and yeast are added and these simple ingredients are…
Keep reading“The Evidence for Coal” Revisited
Back in 2016, Creative Colloquy put out a call for Christmas-themed stories, poems, and essays. I thought it would be a fun challenge to add my own twist to the generations of Yuletide fiction that’s come before. Set in the North Pole in the days before Christmas, “The Evidence for Coal” shows what happens when jolly old St. Nick and Big Data collide.
Keep readingBirthplace of the Revolution: Traveling to Philadelphia
The city of Philadelphia is well-known as the place where delegates from the American colonies set forth a document declaring their independence from Great Britain and their plan to engage in treasonous revolt against King George III. The city is absolutely brimming with historic sites, world-class art, and amazing food, but for me, the moment that hit me the hardest wasn’t seeing George Washington’s copy of the U.S. Constitution or looking out over downtown from the Rocky Steps — it was when I stood in front of the house where I was born. There, in front of a modest stone…
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Land of Fire and Penguins: Traveling to Punta Arenas, Chile
This is part four of my four-part travel series on Argentina and Chile. Today, we head to the city on the edge of the known world: Punta Arenas, Chile. Standing on the hill overlooking the town of Punta Arenas, it’s easy to imagine Ferdinand Magellan sailing into the harbor, searching for a route through the archipelago of rocky islands and storm-tossed seas to the Pacific Ocean. Five hundred years ago, Magellan’s fleet entered a remote region at the bottom of the world which they dubbed “Tierra del Fuego,” or Land of Fire, so named for the many bonfires they spotted…
Keep readingThe Many Faces of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. A time of family, of food, of rest — what’s not to love? For as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving has been the holiday I most look forward to as the days grow shorter and the leaves change. But my relationship with Thanksgiving has evolved over the years along with my understanding of its history and the many twists and turns in my own life. The Early Years Ah, the ’90s. The carefree years of Bill Clinton, the Fresh Prince, boy bands, and Tamagotchis (mine was a T-Rex, in case you were wondering). As…
Keep readingNew Short Story: “Reviews of Sanctuary Creek Honey Farm”
This Labor Day weekend, my family took a road trip through North Cascades National Park. Along the way, we stopped in the small town of Winthrop, WA, to grab a snack and stretch our legs after a long drive. Things went downhill almost as soon as we got out of the car. Winthrop, it turned out, was under siege by bees. Bees were everywhere, dive-bombing us when we tried to enjoy an iced chai at an outdoor cafe, popping up unexpectedly from under the boards of the wood-plank sidewalks, and swarming us when we dared to stop in a creekside…
Keep readingHelp My Audio Drama Win an Award
Read on to find out how you can help my debut audio drama, “The Adventures of Captain Radio,” win an Audio Verse Award! In the fall of 2020, I was desperate for an escape. Between the bitter election and the threat of the pandemic, the future looked pretty bleak. So, in an effort to tune it all out, I wrote a script for a science fiction adventure set in the distant future. It was a lighthearted, retrofuturistic, utopian story in which a mustache-twirling villain bent on destruction faces off against a space-age knight in shining armor. Against all odds, that…
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J.W. Eberle 