After a week of various tunings, I finally settled on “standard” (so much wasted time), came up with riffs for both verses and chorus and a rhythm bridge. The lyrics are done-ish as well. Sigh. I may have a new song tomorrow. Maybe next week.
According to sources, she passed away peacefully at 2am holding the hand of her best friend. Man, what a blessing. Who could ask for anything more? I can’t imagine a better way for someone like her to go.
Lisa Rosselot.
Geez; this girl.
It was June 24th, 1989. My fellow nerds may realize that as the release dates of both Batman ’89 and Ghostbusters II. I was waiting in the theater to meet a girl for a blind date. It was no big deal if she didn’t show because, well, Batman and Ghostbusters. I was winning either way.
I believe my brother was supposed to join me there to meet another girl but he bailed. As imagined, the girl I was supposed to meet bailed too. Instead, me and the girl my brother was supposed to meet…well, we met. Fate?
The only thing I could compare her to in the moment was how Maverick thought about his teacher in Top Gun. As a middle-aged movie addict, I now know that’s a disgusting example for a ‘meet cute’, but we can’t change the past. Also, Batman ’89.
It was the summer before my Sophomore year in high school and we dated until the summer after graduation. She was the first person I loved outside of family, the first to break my heart, and the first to die. Obviously, otherwise she’d be writing this instead of me.
She and I remained just out of each other’s reach for the next thirty years. We wanted different things in life and our inner demons didn’t gel. We were much too powerful to be together. It would’ve triggered some kind of “Legend of Zelda” catastrophe or a sky beam in a Marvel movie. The Jedi made sure we could never join forces again, otherwise it could mean the return of the Sith. Yes, it was that important.
I went on to do different things with different people and so did she. I married her best friend (like a dick) and started a family. Then, everything becomes a blur thanks to alcohol and the US Army. Let’s not go there today.
We came face to face for a couple of weeks in 2017/2018-ish (my mind’s a mess from then), thus the photo.
We tried our best to recreate it, but it wasn’t meant to be; both the photo and the spark. We were in some pretty dark places in our individual lives, and we’d both developed different beliefs, morals, and past atrocities.
Seriously, you couldn’t have forced our two puzzle pieces back together with a hammer. That was when we gave each other permission to let go. We loved each other so deeply – there’s nothing deeper than teenage first loves – that we let common sense rule the day.
We knew each other existed, and we knew we were going to be all right. Roll credits.
In the past six years, I’ve learned to love again. Not stupid, childhood, intoxicated, nostalgia, replacement love, but real love. I’m part of a family again, I’ve found sobriety, and I live in a community where I belong. I began living again in my mid-forties because my high school girlfriend finally gave me permission to do so. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
She predicted this, you know. I think it was my senior year when she said that she was going to die before me, and I would be forced to sit at her grave, tell her stories, and bring her a Chilito and a Mountain Dew. I don’t know any other way of saying this:
To my dear Lisa,
I hope you’re the angel you always dreamed of being. If you are, you will have gained ultimate knowledge; realizing that Taco Bell stopped making Chilito’s in the mid-nineties and I stopped drinking soda on New Year’s Eve 2025. They’re not good for you.
I’ve heard I should’ve gotten to know the “you” who existed since breaking the curse we placed upon one another on that summer’s evening in 1989. Man, that Joker is one, diabolical bastard, isn’t he?
I know you found peace since our breaking, and so have I. Isn’t it amazing? I wish you could’ve met my Sam. She takes such good care of me. I’ve never loved someone so deeply and honestly and I know this because you were the bar for most of my life.
You will always be that country girl laughing at my inner sixteen year old to stop being such a wuss and jump into the damned pool. You “were” my childhood. You taught me how to drive a stick shift!!!
I hope you’re sleeping the deepest, worry-free sleep of your existence. I’ve had tears in the edges of my eyes for hours but they refuse to fall. I’m sorry; I don’t know how to do that anymore. It’s a military thing. I know you’ll forgive me. Trust me; the teenage ghost of me is in shambles.
I’m smiling, though, and I know you are too.
No, I will not sing at your funeral. You’re lucky I’m even going to be there. Do you know how many of our old friends hate me? Regardless, I know you’ll be there watching the drama unfold, because you wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m blaming Batman.
Damn you, Batman.
Update: As I hit “post”, my telephone rang. It was my doctor scheduling my colonoscopy. Ironically, it’s scheduled for one of my ex-wives’ birthdays. I think Lisa predicted this, too.
The “comments” section is at the very bottom of the page. That way, if you’re going to be a poon, I can try to sell you a book on the way down.
The Reverend’s Reads
To most, 1865 was an eye-opening year. The American Civil War was officially over and the soldiers fortunate enough to survive the bloody conflict returned home to collect the pieces of their former lives. To young Arizonan, Robert Jack, the fateful desert homecoming marked the end to all he once knew. Forgiveness is overrated. Death is final. Revenge, however, dances between the fine lines of mortality and eternity. Love always finds a way.
“Reading Jim Walker and the Redemption Hymn is equal parts quirky fun and riveting action. Cloud’s confident, entertaining voice draws the reader in like an old radio western: the perfect bite-sized story with a main character you’re ready to follow through every adventure he finds himself on. So, tune in next time…”
– Megan Stockton, author of Lovely, Dark & Deep
The history books would read that Jim Walker was brutally executed after the Battle of Goliad, but a few promises in the right ear blurred the contrast between blood and ink. Now an aging bounty hunter on the verge of retirement, his services are requested in the Northern Arizona Territory to solve the terrifying mystery of the Verde River Massacre. With guns from a local Deputy, courage from a saloon proprietor, and a deathbed confession from an all-too-familiar Medicine Woman, Jim sets off on what could be his final adventure. Will he lay the ghosts of his past to rest once and for all, or is he simply whistling his Redemption Hymn?
“Someone call DC and tell them this is how you write a female hero character!” – Lisa Lee Tone, Bibliophelia Templum
Angel Burns is a young firefighter with a shrouded history. During a routine night at work, she stumbles upon a demonic ceremony that brings her memories out of hiding – as well as her repressed supernatural powers. Angel soon learns her life was intended for things greater than extinguishing fires for mortals. Now on the payroll of the Vatican, Angel embarks upon an epic quest to protect the Gutenberg Bibles from evil. If successful, she will secure peace for generations. If she fails, the power of the ancient books will bestow an eternity of darkness upon all humanity!
Toby Liberman is nearing the end of his rope. After a fateful confrontation with his wife’s lover, he is chased into the woods only to be discovered by an unidentifiable creature. He is attacked and rendered unconscious. Upon waking at the scene of a gruesome triple homicide, Toby is arrested as the sole suspect and thrown into a jail cell with a strange man that knows way too much about his predicament. The stranger reveals to Toby that he now possesses the curse of the werewolf. Using his new-found strength to flee his captors, Toby begins to discover that things are not what they seem in the sleepy town of Twin Oaks, TX. Now hunted by law enforcement, as well as the town’s gun toting civilians, Toby seeks vengeance against his false accusers and embarks upon a quest to clear his name once and for all.
A Curse Beyond Comprehension. A Power Beyond Belief. A Girl Far From Home. Katie Liberman is your typical eighteen-year-old college student…or at least that’s what her family thinks. Picking up five years after the events of A Taste of Home, Katie has dropped out of school and embarked upon a dangerous quest to find Kurt Jimmerson, the New York City attorney responsible for her family’s werewolf curse. Unknown to her, the attorney’s grip on the ‘City That Never Sleeps’ is tighter than imagined and she’ll need any and all help available to be victorious. But… where do you find friends when you’re Far From Home?
Twin Oaks, Texas is at war! Taking place immediately after the Far From Home events in New York City, Katie Liberman has returned to rescue her birthplace from the clutches of her nemesis. As the paranormal battle of North vs. South rages in the shadows, the tiny town must decide to fight against the odds or become one with the darkness. Blood will be shed and only one will survive as the final battle of the Home Series concludes.
I know this is the part where I’m supposed to talk about the book, but I feel as though the synopsis needs its own preface to truly understand. 2023 was quite an eye-opening year! I began it by living my dream as a vintage steam locomotive fireman, but that dream was soon squashed thanks to my writing career. It won’t matter that you wrote your extreme horror offerings years ago and under a pen name. Also, it won’t matter that your publisher and author friends from days gone by express pleasantries and kind, nurturing words to your face, because they’ll clique-up and talk trash the minute you turn your back. F**k the biz, create. Create for art, not clicks. Click for love, not hate. Those are words true artists should have no issues living by, yet most seem to hide behind their keyboard shields, flinging ill-thought words of destruction toward once-trusted ears. Don’t pour something into everything; pour everything into something. Do it all by yourself if necessary. With any luck, 2024 will be the year of The Reverend. I’m not exactly sure what that means yet, but we’ll find out together. Anyway, here are a few short stories and poems I wrote as C. Derick Miller in 2023. I stole them from myself. Fair and square. Enjoy.
Poetry has always come naturally to me. Whether it is an expression of emotion toward someone I care about, or a display of humor pointed in the direction of those I loathe, it is my true outlet. Several of these works were written in a passenger seat while exploring the highways of the United States and somehow managed to survive “The Great Ex-Wife/Ex-Girlfriend Poetry Purge” of 2019. Others were penned during COVID-19 quarantine. Although it may not be the most epic poetry collection you’ve ever read, it all contains bits of blood and soul. You will feel something. Guaranteed.
“This profound collection of horror brings classic monsters into new light in the modern day” – B.L. Blankenship, God Walks The Dark Hills series.
The modern world is a crazy place. Worrying about childish politicians, empty grocery store shelves, and our pending membership to the “global disease of the week” club, it leaves very little time for the average reader to finish an entire novel. This is where Six from Five Seven: Short Stories from a Short Man comes in clutch! A story per day to keep the impending apocalypse away, with a single day left over to contemplate why you purchased this book in the first place. That sounds like an entertaining week when compared to the one you were destined to have regardless. What do a cursed husband, a privileged brat, a curious prostitute, a repressed savior, a vengeful son, and two hell-bound soldiers have in common? Their stories lie within the pages of this collection and invite you to tag along on their journeys of fate, redemption, and demise. When finished, you, dear reader, can hide this book inside your basement with the rest of those important documents you wished you’d never taken home. The FBI won’t be happy, but at least they’ll know you’re a cool person for owning a copy while conducting the raid. That must count for something, right? Let’s hope the judge thinks so!
Also, there’s a few other things not listed here that are floating around out there. Best of luck with the hunt.
Current Projects
Rev. Dare Cloud
Reverend · adjective. worthy of adoration or reverence. synonyms: sublime · sacred.
is a Dallas author, musician, and gonzo journalist. Some of his works include the controversial splatter-western Starving Zoe (written as C. Derick Miller), the Taste of Home trilogy, and the ongoing Jim Walker series. He is also the co-host of the American Justice Podcast and Senior Writer/Junior Producer for AtuA Productions LLC. His literary crushes are (of course) Hunter S. Thompson, J.D. Salinger, and Kevin Smith. Preach truths, toke jokes, and shoplift Amazon.
“You’ve got to press it on you You’ve just been thinking That’s what you do, baby Hold it down, Dare!” – Gorillaz
The Gonzo Wolf 
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