“A Mother’s Heart” by Carol Smail

July 14, 2016, a phone call shared with love. So much love. That date will forever be embedded in my soul. “Hey Ma, I won’t be able to be with you tomorrow, but wanted to let you know I’ll be praying for you.” Yes GOD IS LOVE. The love of a mother is unconditional. In […]

“The Orth-Daly Case” by Ben Himmelfarb

Part 1 This was supposed to be a simple lookup. A “lookup” was the general name for the work I did. People called or emailed the library almost everyday asking me to do research. Even though I couldn’t always find the answers they wanted, I was duty-bound to try. I was the local history librarian […]

“Writing Saved My Life” by Chris Roy

I believe that 90% of creativity is putting in the work. Start with an idea and expand on it. It’s awful at first. Make revisions, additions, trim and polish, until the final product is a single piece of art that will dazzle and baffle and few will know how much work was put into it—most […]

“Hollywood Homicide in the Seventies: The Snake and Bake Murder” by Steve Hodel

I applied at city hall for both LAPD and the sheriff’s department. Two weeks after I had passed both entrance exams and had been rejected by the sheriff’s department at the in-person interview for being too young, I was called in for my oral at LAPD. That went better. I fit their job description as […]