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Below are a handful of writing samples, ranging from nonfiction articles, short stories, poems, and passages from larger fictional pieces. If you want to learn about books I am writing or have written, select Books from the menu.

Chapter One: The Body

It was half-past twelve, and Sir Alejandro Hidalgo was fifty-two minutes late in his departure. The winding, ribbon street fluttered ahead, making his stomach churn and skin turn green. To distract his sickly thoughts, he closed his eyes. The image of a dancer, female, popped into his mind. In her delicate hand, she twirled a banner in miraculous patterns, mirroring that of the cobblestone street he rode on. She was tall and majestic, her sinewy arms slicing through the air, her long, toned legs…

A pothole jolted him from his dream. 

“‘A’most there, mate,” The cockney driver bellowed, tossing something into Alejandro’s lap. “‘Ere’s some cigars, they’ll ‘elp with the turns,”

“Thank you,” Alejandro lit the cheap thing, watching the thick vapor drift. There was nothing better than cigars and beautiful women. What a beautiful day it was. 

“No,” Alejandro thought, staring at the milky white envelope peeking from his coat pocket. “I must stay focused. If I don’t, someone will die.”

The sprawling green hills of the English countryside billowed around them, stone fences enclosing scruffy sheep and old country houses blemishing the silky grass.

Alejandro puffed out a ring of smoke and mumbled, “God, show me the way,” as his patience to arrive was draining.

The ring jerked to the right by a sudden gust of wind toward a small dirt road.

“Turn,”

“But sir-” The driver pointed ahead down a hill where the town of Milford was visible.

“I said turn man!”

The vehicle swerved right, the axles creaking with the pressure. Alejandro signed the cross. The site ahead was worth the flash of fear, filling him with both pride and disgust.

His smoke ring party trick had worked again to locate the quaint bed and breakfast he needed to be. It was a one-story stone cottage. It was long with one section made of paned glass like a conservatory. A small garden in the back buzzed with bees. A table and char sat before the red front door.

“Appalling,” Alajandro still sat while the driver hefted his luggage out of the trunk. When his passenger still did not move, he opened the car door and put his hand out to help Alejandro out of the car.

“Enjoy, sir,” the cabby sped off after lugging the luggage into the foyer of the cottage. Doilies covered every imaginable surface, lace curtains hung over the windows. A smell of peppermint, tea, and a musty odor that can only be described as-

“Cat!” Alejandro jumped as a vicious, purring monster nudged his leg. A hoppity sound came nearer and nearer. Around the corner of a hallway came a little old woman, her hair in uniform gray curls, and wearing a blue cotton dress. Alejandro presumed her life was to end any day, slowly sizzling out like a burning Cubana. 

“That’s only Mr. Licksalot,” She scooped the fluffy creature up and stuck it in Alejandro’s face. He fumbled into the wall, crashing into crocheted works. “Guess how he got his name?” She wheezed with laughter and set the feline on the counter of the front desk. Its fire-like eyes stared into Alejandro’s soul.

“I am in need of lodging.”

“And I am in need of one more occupant, so that works out dandylike,” She smiled. “How many?”

“One,”

“Oh, no wife, then. That can be fixed. Milford is the town of romance,” Alejandro peeked out the window at the dull gray village with its few old shops and the steeple of a medieval church, ancient residents meandering down the street, stooped over canes. “Business or leisure?”

“Leisure,” Alejandro shuffled. Lying never felt right to him, despite how often he practiced the act.

“Mmm-hmm,” The lady eyed him. “You a Nazi?”

“Madam!” Alejandro waved his hands in the air. “Of course not! I can hardly believe such an accusation is necessary for my stay.”

“You have a funny accent, and I can’t tell if it’s German.”

“No,” Alejandro stiffened, annoyed. “I am Spanish, raised in Portugal.”

“Too close to Germany for comfort,” the old lady raised a pen. “But I need all the guests I can get. My name is Mary Pickford. If you need something, just shout. It will be a full house tonight, so preferably before evening comes. Here are your room keys, sir. You’re at the end of the hall.”

Forget Waste and Feed Louisville

Across the country, and in Louisville, Kentucky, many people and families are at crisis for hunger, yet close to 40 percent of our food supply ends up in landfills. The level of food insecurity (defined by the USDA as not always having “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life”) is on the rise from 13.5% across the country. People often go on their phones, doom scrolling and watching TV as forms of escapism from the many problems in the world. However, society cannot turn a blind eye to the issues facing many or else they will only worsen. Thankfully, there are many organizations that work to help fight hunger and divert food from landfills, including Feed Louisville. Feed Louisville is a nonprofit organization that wishes to utilize quality food that would otherwise rot in a landfill to feed “houseless and food insecure people” in the Louisville area. In Louisville alone, 16% of residents deal with food insecurity, including families and children. There are 10,000 or more unhoused people in Louisville, as well as dozens of families with young children on the streets. Although not all food insecure people are unhoused, the problems go hand in hand. Additionally, 29% of solid waste in Jefferson County is food, much of which is thrown away because of over-purchasing or slight defects. Feed Louisville aims to solve both of these problems in one, and over the past five years has established itself as a unique organization set on creating positive change.

Serendipitous Beginnings 

Rhona Bowles Kamar, the executive director and founder of Feed Louisville, began the organization from an “innocent conversation that might have never taken place.” She recalled the time during her catering business in March 2020, when a previous customer came in and said he volunteered with the houseless community after work. He would go out to camps in teh street taking granola bars, water, whatever he could. The pandemic had resulted in coup kitchens to close due to volunteers staying home and quarantine. Rhona asked how she could help and he said he needed hot meals. She wasted no time in calling up her friends and said, “‘Do you want to cook with me? Let’s cook for this guy for a couple weeks.’ We literally thought it would be a two week thing.” They cooked hot meals and then began engaging with local restaurants like Ramsi’s Cafe, cooking a couple hundred meals a day. After two months they had 16 restaurant partners. They would prepare the meals and Rhona and her friends would pick them up, delivering them to people on the street. Initially, they had to raise money to cover the cost of paying for all these delicious meals. The community responded. “Restaurants and bakers and farmers, and all these people donating food… chefs and cooks in the kitchen, people at night making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…” They realized they began filling a niche in the community by taking resources directly to people in camps. Over the next five years they began shifting from making all meals from scratch to rescuing food. They found lots of incoming resources was food that would have been trashed, so they expanded on the “rescue model” by sourcing food that was overproduced or over purchased to repurpose into meals for those who need it. “Then we realized ‘wow, there’s a really strong intersection here between food rescue and hunger relief…That’s how we very accidentally started a non profit!”

Finding Community 

Community is central for Feed Louisville. Feed Louisville operates by partnering with local restaurants, businesses, nonprofits and charities, farmers, and even grocery stores like Kroger to save waste and feed the community. Additionally, corporate volunteers have also partnered, such as Warby Parker and Humana, providing volunteers for events and raising money. As Louisville is the #1 Foodie City in the United States, there is no shortage of food to go around and countless restaurants to partner with. This unique approach is economical and sustainable, with few other nonprofits using this approach. Feed Louisville partners with other nonprofits to direct the meals they make out to houseless and food insecure people in the area, such as Sister Visitor center, Forgotten Louisville, Hope Village, and many others. Maurice at Hope Village said, “The food that they[Feed Louisville] provides for us not only feeds this community that lives here at the Hope Village, [but also] the people surrounding us not in the village… they’ll come around dinner time and… ask us for something to eat… if it wasn’t for [Feed Louisville], it would be very difficult to keep this place open with the residents we have in and provide food.” 

Feed Louisville is “predominantly community funded” through their amazing community of individual donors, support through community events, Venmo donations, recurring donors, foundations that provide grant money, and volunteer groups. They enjoy participating in community events, such as Give for Good Louisville. The organization brings in chefs who get to be creative with the daily menus they create based on what is available, driven by a passion to not waste anything donated. “There are a lot of people in our community that don’t know where their next meal is coming from, and there is a lot of really good food in this community that goes to waste,” Rhona says, “we have built the infrastructure to bring those two things together and to make sure that people get the food resources they need. It’s a model that works. 

Feeding the Future

Feed Louisville has grown substantially over the years, and in 2023 moved into a much larger space that allowed them to take in “234,000 pounds of food donations” (Feed Louisville). However, they are still making 70% of their ready-to-eat meals themselves. This causes the cost of feeding people to increase substantially and requires more volunteers to prepare food. Feed Louisville has set a goal to reduce that statistic to 50% by next year, doubling the hours of volunteer time, and partnering with more homeless shelters, outreach programs, and food resources. To accomplish this, they need financial sustainability. “We want to grow our partnerships. The only way we are going to grow is by serving more people to have impact.” Rhona says. She continues by saying that to grow their outreach, they simply need more donations. This support can come from the community, foundations, city government, and restaurant partners. She explains that their mission of making meals and redistributing food from landfills and into hungry mouths is a full time job, but there is another side to sustain their work. “Our work is to feed people, but we have another burden to fund the work.” If you or anyone you might know is interested in helping Feed Louisville, whether it is a small donation or spending a few hours chopping or peeling in their expansive kitchen, you can visit their website: www.feedlouisville.org, contact Rhona directly: rhona@feedlouisville.org. All money earned goes back to the city of Louisville to combat hunger and food waste. These problems can seem imposing, impossible to solve. However, if communities come together for a common purpose they can achieve great things. As Maurice from Hope Village says, “Everybody deserves community”, and Louisville  cannot let the disadvantaged go unnoticed. Louisville is a tight-knit community and together, with the help of organizations like Feed Louisville, can eradicate food insecurity and food waste.

Citations

Center for Biological Diversity. (2014). Food Waste is Trashing the Planet. Take Extinction off Your Plate. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/takeextinctionoffyourplate/waste/index.html

Feed Louisville. (2024). Feed Louisville. https://www.feedlouisville.org/#/

Greater Louisville Project. (n.d.). Food Insecurity. Greater Louisville Project. Retrieved September 11, 2024, from https://greaterlouisvilleproject.org/factors/food-insecurity/#:~:text=Louisville%20currently%20ranks%205th%20among

Kamar, R. (2024, September 20). Questions about Feed Louisville (E. Green, Interviewer) [Personal communication].

Kentucky Harvest – Moving To Eliminate Hunger. (2023). Kyharvest.org. https://kyharvest.org/#:~:text=A%20recent%20Louisville%20Solid%20Waste

Maurice. (2024, September 20). Feed Louisville partner Hope Village Questions (E. Green, Interviewer) [Personal communication].

USDA. (n.d.). Food Waste FAQs. Usda.gov; USDA. Retrieved September 12, 2024, from https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs

USDA ERS - Key Statistics & Graphics. (n.d.). Ers.usda.gov. https://ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/key-statistics-graphics/

5-5 stars, Knives Out is a contemporary, brilliant thriller.

      Rian Johnson, the director of the most recent Star Wars Trilogy, switches things up with a timeless yet fresh “whodunnit”. With three awards and the knowledge of working in six films, he is quite experienced. In Star Wars, he was able to create a movie just as magical as the original, with brand-new locations and characters that establish it as another classic. Even with that under his belt, Knives Out outshines any other picture Johnson has been involved in, earning the picture an Academy Award Nomination. This contemporary Agatha Christie-like mystery delves into the mysterious death of rich Harlan Thrombey, and the killer must be someone from his birthday party the night before. It shadows Murder on the Orient Express, another drama that is just as immersive. Knives Out is a modern movie that will be a staple murder mystery for decades to come, with a story plot of gold and all the right elements that make it feel like you are in the mansion with the Thrombey's, hunting for the answer.

 Many components go into making an exceptional movie; Knives Out incorporates all the requirements for one. One of the most important parts is casting. The cast for this feature is very diverse in their acting history, but blends masterfully. Christopher Plummer from The Sound Of Music plays a much different character in the humble, kind, and very wealthy Harlan Thrombey. Though he only has several lines and is not seen often throughout, his performance is realistic and poignant.  Most people know Chris Evans best for his charming and heroic character, Captain America, in the Marvel Series. He has been known to do a few sappy (but entertaining) flicks, although this knocks them all out of the park. Chris Evans transforms into his character as young, money-craving Ransom. Alongside the contrasting character Marta (Ana de Armas) they amplify each other and accentuate the characteristics. And of course, Daniel, Daniel Craig. Known for his fantastic role as James Bond, he now goes to a different side of the crime department as Benoit Blanc, a southern, masterful detective. Craig can portray Blanc's thought process easily, without watchers catching on too much, but also tug our heartstrings by getting to the heart of the case. A cast like this is guaranteed to give you an impressive show. With the cast all together for most of the movie, you get a sense of family, even if it is more dysfunctional than warm and cuddly. 

 You can’t have a film without writing the script, and boy, what a script. It is unique, yet the viewer can correlate what is happening to their own life. 

'We must look a little closer. And when we do, we see that the doughnut hole has a hole in its center. It is not a doughnut hole, but a smaller doughnut with its own hole, and our doughnut is not holed at all!’ Benoit Blanc says as he gets to the bottom of the case. Writing a script is no easy job, especially for a mystery. It is a skill that has been sought after for ages now. (Possible spoilers ahead!) The format of the movie is this: First, Harlan Thrombey is found dead. Then everyone goes to the mansion and gets questioned. As it goes along, you see snippets of the past (before the murder and during), and then you go back to after it has all happened. Well, that sounds kind of boring, knowing who murdered him for half the time? No, somehow Rian Johnson (also the writer for Knives Out) can make it just as nail-biting as the first half. The dialogue between characters is so realistic, I was laughing and pointing out the similarities in our family. In many murder dramas, it is all about death and blood and guts, but this is much more interesting, with family drama, political arguments, and comedy. To many people, including myself, I like to see a good show, sad or thrilling, but it must have some comedy. It is interlaced so precisely and perfectly it catches you without realizing it. Many viewers don’t realize a good script unless it is bad, but productions like Forrest Gump and Jerry Maguire have scripts that are, although fictional, convincing and relatable with the right amount of satire. This new film goes right along with them. 

 While watching, you can’t help but notice the lighting. In a scene that is supposed to be very suspenseful, it is dark, with harsh white lights shining farther away. In most scenes after the death of Harlan, it is gray and dull, a little rainy even. Before his death, the lighting (since it is night) is a warm yellow that makes you feel comfortable. You don’t get that feeling once he is gone, much like a loss in our own lives. It is a small, minuscule part of the plot, but those little aspects can have a strong impact. Another minute detail is costumes. Each character has their own style and a very strong personality to match. In Marta's case, she wears pastel colors and cozy knit clothing, showing her innocence and pure kindness. Blanc wears a dark suit, making him look very important. Meg Thrombey wears flowery-loose clothes because she is very laid back, and Ransom wears a sweater, some jeans, and a big brown coat because he has better things to do than solve the question of who murdered his grandfather. 

 At the end of the movie, when you realize what the true story is, humanity is involved. Nothing had been too serious until then. You realize the true cost of what has happened. But right before the credits scroll by, Johnson cheers us up with a brilliant, blunt, and hilarious ending. In a film industry of sex, blood, and violence, this murder mystery doesn’t need unnecessary details to grab attention. It has a genius script, talented actors, and a few accessories and hints accompanying you through the twisted path of homicide. 

Play of Peace

Sweet, sun-dappled meadows,

Warm air and birds twittering,

Then the cold entrance of shadows,

Shattering the pristine peace that was.

The barking of the belligerent men,

Stupid, petty disagreements,

Reverting back to school children,

Forgetting peace and forging war.

I watch from my perch, questioning it all.

This now tainted land,

Seeping with the slithering corruption of 

Man.

O, what a creation!

Full of laws, lies, and leaders.

Ego leads them into the darkness of humanity.

Quite simply, predators,

Feasting upon the innocent,

The sweet and wondrous.

Leaders make peace

Dangerous