"Curmudgeon" wasn't a strong enough word to describe Barney who it was joked came out of the womb a grumpy old man.

Ralph always kept his Gone Fishin' sign on the door of his office since he spent half his life actually 

angling and the rest of the time as a reporter trawling for news. 

Pulling green tomatoes off her vines following the first frost, Rachel knew the long winter months were on the way.

Through the dark wood they drove towards a light in the distance.

By mid-September he was ready to toss the radio out the window, smash the computer, and cut the cable to avoid any more news about the presidential race.

The sun hung high in the sky; dusty light slicing through the shades, accusing me of shiftlessness.

The dog snarled and snapped its jaws before realizing the boy had brought him a treat.

His moral compass broken, he wandered the political wasteland with a flamethrower to kill off anything still growing there.

The old park, shaggy and unkempt, stood in stark contrast to the ever-changing neighborhood and was the last refuge of the lost and lonely.

I wandered the streets of the city I once called home no longer able to visualize the welcoming shops and careworn homes that had been replaced by glass and steel monoliths.

The older and better known the author became, the less he felt inclined to keep his opinions to himself.

Time seemed to shift and change in the garden, from the slow routine of putting seeds into the ground, weeding and waiting, to that brief burst of frenetic activity when the harvest came in.

The past was her present.

We threw what little we had saved onto the boat and leapt aboard like gazelles fleeing from a a hungry lion.

The glow of America's television sets cast long dark shadows across the land.

The excitement and anticipation I once felt about amusement parks was now reserved for research libraries.

Lucy danced and danced letting all the lies and hurt pour out of her like the sweat that cascaded from her body.

The old music played on and on full of sweet bitterness and light, a door for the old man to cross through.

He recalled the faces looking out from the home-made posters that filled the subway walls, the hollow stares of the other subway riders and the stench of burnt plastic that seemed to cling to everything even days later.

When Frank was fired for his refusal to embrace social media, he took his old rolodex with him, throwing the newspaper into a tizzy when the editors realized he was the only one with any real connections to the community.

He walked in a daze through the billowing smoke, the incessant chanting echoing in his ears.

The national bar for douchebaggery had once again been raised.

Halfway through her forties Sally wondered exactly when she would begin feeling like an adult and worried that there might be something wrong with her.

From the heights of the Broadway stage Alice had tumbled and rolled right down to the Coney Island boardwalk where she performed in a third-rate burlesque show.

Her mask of civility was seen to slip with each sip of her sherry at the garden party.

He spent half his life poisoning himself and the other half recovering.

We were all guilty.

The drunken captain fell asleep at the wheel as the ship headed directly into the path of the hurricane.

"weird how one tiny moment can change everything," Ike thought as he squeezed the trigger.

Burned out and forgotten by her public by age 12, Kathy's comeback attempts stalled until she was caught up in a murder investigation that helped kickstart her career.