Publications.
Books — Fiction — Nonfiction — Journalism
Books.
All This And War — KDP
”In three short stories, All This and War captures the violence, absurdity, and heartbreak of one Marine's path from a recruit in bootcamp to a hardened veteran in Iraq. Choosing to skip the heroics, the collection focuses instead on little moments of humanity that manage to shine through dark and difficult times. Whether it's a Drill Instructor and his recruits sharing a laugh, friends coping with the loss of a brother in arms, or a Marine sharing a lemon poppyseed poundcake with an Afghan girl, All This and War is a book about connections forged during hard times”
Fiction.
A Marine Corps How-To Guide on Coping With the Loss of a Recently-Deceased Friend — Flash Fiction Magazine
”A piss tube is exactly what it sounds like. When we first got here we stabbed a six-foot PVC pipe into the sand at an angle so everyone could piss in it like a wall urinal. Nicer outposts have a series of them lined up side-by-side. It helped with the smell because it spread the piss out over a dozen feet or so. We only had the one, though”
Adapt and Overcome — The Line
“Just before we all climbed in though we faced each other, leaned forward a bit, and patted our legs like they were a bunch of good boys who’d just returned the stick on the first throw.
“Any day could be your last with your legs out here. You show some love when you can”
Other Than, Person — BULL
”I could have a ‘negligent discharge’ that finds its way to the center of his face. I’m a POG, so it probably wouldn’t surprise anybody. Plus a little “green on green” incident might shake things up a bit, make it exciting around here. But I’d probably end up in the brig. I should be more tactical about it”
Whale Watching with an M16 — Collateral Journal
“All I’m saying is that after surviving multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, getting chomped in half by that goofy-ass whale from Free Willy during a fucking training exercise would be an embarrassing way to go”
Meet me at the quarterdeck — BULL
“That’s what so many civilians don’t seem to understand. We’re not all gun-toting, dip-spitting, far right fuckheads who want to kill somebody and talk shit to “Lib-tards” and collect American flag tattoos. Some of us, the vast majority of us, are just kids who wanted to go to college, to travel the world, to support our families”
Heartburn and The Morning After — Floodwall Magazine
“He perched on the top of the bleachers and scanned the room. Like any good bird of prey, Mayo knew it wasn’t the strongest or the fastest you zeroed in on. Those kids didn’t need to be hunted. They willingly stepped into the lion’s den the day they graduated and shipped out the same week” — Heartburn
“She heard him drag a chair out from under the table and take a seat. She checked the reflection but couldn’t see him. She tightened her grip on the knife and looked toward her phone” — The Morning After
Strong at the Broken Places — Academy of the Heart and Mind
”He put his hands on his hips and rocked back a bit, thrusting his pelvis forward. I could feel the heat from his body warming my lower back. I put my toothbrush under the running water and spit out the remainder of the paste from my mouth. I tapped the brush on the sink and wiped my face with the towel before turning around to face him. I stepped off to the side a bit to get a little space between my gut and his”
The Ghosts We Carry — Flash Phantoms
”Two beady eyes flashed just inside the doorway. Raymond squinted to get a better look. The eyes blinked and disappeared. Was it a squatter? All the way out here? Couldn’t be. Folks with no place to go were better off finding empty houses in town—closer to kind strangers who might give them a few bucks. Out here, they were alone.
“If not a squatter, then who?”
Shotgun Wedding — Vines Leaves Press, 50 Give or Take
”Audi smelled like flowers and sparkled like a pole at a strip club. She was a sometimes-bartender just outside Camp Pendleton. The night we met she told me she needed health insurance for her daughter, then she touched my thigh. I knew then that we’d hate each other one day”
Nonfiction.
Binge — The Wrath-Bearing Tree
“The evolution didn’t happen overnight. It was slow and subtle. An extra cookie here, another plateful there. My body grew taller and wider. At nine years old I was skinny—a string bean, a noodle. By the time I got to Junior High, I was obese”
Once a Marine — Alchemy Literary Magazine
“The night I told my new friends about that day in Afghanistan, I cried in public. One cried with me, another asked how can we help?, and another stared, deadpan. I fidgeted with my KIA bracelets and said I’m sorry, I’m sorry. None of them call or text me anymore”
Dirty Realism, Veteran Transition, and Contemporary War Literature — Ploughshares
“The dystopian realism of contemporary war literature adopts the sentence structure of dirty realism and combines it with this insistence on experiencing the extreme. Americans need no grandiose language to help them imagine violence. They live with it every day”
Journalism.
Pittsburgh becomes more than a shot-and-a-beer town with the rise of non-alcoholic options — 90.5 WESA
”I just recently moved to Pittsburgh after six years of living in Buddhist monasteries,” Freitas said. “It was a great experience. I learned a lot about myself. But then at a certain point, I made a decision that I think I had taken that as far as I was going to be able to take it.”
Allegheny County D.A.’s officer offers “Combating Antisemitism” training for universities — 90.5 WESA
“I just think this is extremely important in light of where we are today with the spike in anti-Semitism in the world and specifically on college campuses,” Zur said. “I think it's important to have this discussion to educate and hopefully get to a place where, you know, we can ultimately end this hatred”
Pittsburgh reactions to US Surgeon General’s call for cancer warnings on alcohol — 90.5 WESA
“Nobody's drinking for their health and nobody's really looking at a label and like, ‘oh my gosh, I need to really readjust my life choices here,’” Glausier said. “We're drinking for fun. We're drinking for, you know, engagement for community, whatever”
United Way of Grand Forks to announce new president — Prairie Public
“Johnson said she was happy to step in as the interim president to help keep the ship afloat until a new president could be identified. She also expressed optimism for the future of United Way”
UND, North Dakota Game and Fish establish new wildlife management area — Prairie Public
“The University of North Dakota has partnered with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department as well as Traill County to establish a new wildlife management area in Traill County. Prairie Public's Matt Eidson has the story”
East Grand Forks Elementary students celebrate Arbor Day — Prairie Public
“As Reid finished speaking, each class of fourth-graders made their way to one of seven pre-dug holes with a young tree lying beside it, ready for planting. With a Parks and Rec employee overseeing the process, the kids planted, shoveled and stomped until the tree stood upright”
Grand Forks police participate in “Click It or Ticket” campaign — Prairie Public
“The Grand Forks Police Department will be out in full-force next week as part of the nationwide "Click It or Ticket" campaign. Prairie Public's Matt Eidson has the story”
East Grand Forks students get hands dirty planting trees — Grand Forks Herald
“Most trees will outlive us,” he said. “So, when you guys get older, when you come back to visit, you can always remember where you planted these trees and you can come out and take a look at them and see how they’ve grown”
Grand Forks Air Force Base canine unit getting an upgrade — Grand Forks Herald
“It’s very important to be able to come out here because sometimes it’s where all the rapport happens — the relationship that you build with that dog,” she said. “And being able to have that capability any time of day is going to be super important for mission success”
East Grand Forks police seek input, funds for body cameras — Grand Forks Herald
"Our current system is on its last leg," Hedlund said. "It's about five years old, it's just not operating the way it should anymore. So we have to get that replaced as soon as possible, and our intent would be to do that with WatchGuard”
UND’s English Coulee gets 2 floating islands — Grand Forks Herald
“The environment isn’t just a job for the environmentalist and the biologists,” Thorstenson says. “The environment is something were all a part of; we all take away from it and we all use it, so it should be everybody’s responsibility, regardless of what your career path is”