I’m in my early fifties now, and escape from my dungeon on occasion to relive the better parts of my past. What do I miss the most about days gone by? That’s an easy answer. New York City.
Now retired and living in the heart of Dallas, I inadvertently find myself concocting precarious situations to recall those Manhattan weekend journeys. Here, I hop public transit to do the most menial tasks without much of a gameplan. Today, I’m going all the way to the other side of the city to test out some Fender Strats.
I own a nice truck, but it’s hard to write and drive at the same time. I wanted to get out into the heart of the city to feel the vibe they won’t show me on the evening news. There’s no better way to do that than public transit.
It’s late August and scorching hot. Glancing up from time to time, I realize I’m somewhere I’ve never been. It’s exhilarating, really. A cackling woman under the influence of who-knows-what reveals her presence from behind me. When did she get on? Was she there the whole time? I don’t recall flinching when I heard it. The pandemic made me numb.
Yes, this is just like NY, but on a more microscopic scale. I need to up the ante a bit so, next stop, I’m whipping out ‘Old Man Proto’. Temporarily warping reality should even the playing field more to my liking.
I look up again and see I’m still in unfamiliar territory. Luckily, trains and busses run on loops so I can hop off whenever. I recognize the street names from some of the worst reports in Dallas history, but I witness zero of those infamous, hood-esque shenanigans. Perhaps violence erupts in all neighborhoods, but the news gets more viewers when the stories contain the less fortunate.
I feel just as safe here in this rattling death-trap as I do sitting outside my own home surrounded by weapons and booby-traps because safety is a point of view, folks.
What feels safe to me may feel threatening to you. Dallas “safe” is equal to NY “meh”. So, the next time someone asks, “Is it safe?”, how do you respond?
“I don’t know; is it?”
I look up once more to get a glimpse of my bearings. Sure, I could stop writing and fondle modern technology long enough to see exactly where I’m at, but that’s no fun. How do you know what’s safe if you don’t experience danger? What’s a god if you’ve never met the devil? What’s death if you choose never to live in the first place?
This is how I did it back in the day; long before I penned fiction. I placed myself in precarious situations – whether that be natural, geographical, or metaphysical – and wrote in the dangerous moments; the barbed birth canal of true gonzo journalism. Tell how the other half lives by seeing it with your own eyes. I think the misinformed would find more love existing in the pits of poverty than in the billionaire banquets televised via right-wing cable media.
Now I know exactly where I am on the route, I think. I recognize the apartment complex from one of those “worst ‘hoods in Dallas” videos on YouTube. I see zero gangs of thugs or hoodlums. They must be invisible until filmed through a camera’s lenses or seen through special glasses like the classic haunted house film “Thirteen Ghosts”. I’m not saying these places aren’t chaotic from time to time, but all neighborhoods are. Have you ever been to an impromptu monster truck mud bog out in the sticks? Same thing, just whiter. Those parties don’t run 24/7 either.
All right; I’m going to pull myself out of the zone for a second to gather my bearings. The bus driver just took his break and left me on the bus alone. I had a CDL license for the better part of a decade, but I don’t wear orange well. Makes me look like a fat pack of Zig-Zags.
In closing, the loudest and most obnoxious of every bubble is the one who receives the most camera time, thus developing the viewers ever-evolving point of view. THEY tell us what’s safe and unsafe, but why do we even listen? Safety is a point-of-view, like the interpretation of art in a museum or the ferocity of the family pet toward strangers. The only way our current government administration can tell us something is collectively unsafe is because they’re the ones who drew the safety lines in the first place.
How can we be courageous when the gatekeepers control the fear-cage? How can we be less hateful when they tell us who, what, when, where, why, and how to love?
That’s the easy part in all of this, ladies and gentlemen. We heal our world by becoming deaf to the mainstream. Get out of your comfort zone and see what life is doing without you. Preach truths, toke jokes, and shoplift Amazon. Where am I? Forget the guitars. I’m hungry and going home.
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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