Email Author Mark Donald

2002 Stories by Mark Donald

• Party Time

  published December 19, 2002

  It wasn't just another obligatory holiday party, the kind of work-related seasonal gathering only made palatable by good liquor and plenty of it.... More >>

• Lethal Rejection

  published December 12, 2002

  Ever since her daughter's funeral, she had been stalked by the same nightmare: Nancy is in the Pizza Hut in Austin, stripped naked in the... More >>

• Steppin' Out

  published October 31, 2002

  He knows it won't be easy--coming out of the "smoky closet," as one marijuana advocate puts it. After all, he has been a professional football... More >>

• The View From the Bottom

  published October 24, 2002

  One morning in July he starts to cry and can't stop. There is no money left; he has sold or hocked nearly everything he owns and is still... More >>

• Bench Warmers

  published August 29, 2002

  Being a Democrat, a Latino, a woman, Sara Saldaña believed she had chosen the right election cycle to run for civil district judge in... More >>

• Clean Time

  published August 22, 2002

  The judge takes his seat behind the bench, wearing shirtsleeves, a striped tie and a bucketful of country-boy charm. "How y'all doing... More >>

• The Ex-Con Game

  published August 1, 2002

  He grew anxious as he approached a customs official at the Ottawa airport, declaring that he had lost his fanny pack, which contained his drivers... More >>

• Coming of Age

  published July 11, 2002

  Tom Gilley had been through it before: the termination, the humiliation, the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that something just wasn't... More >>

• The Dog Whisperer

  published June 6, 2002

  It's not as though we didn't already have the two most challenging kids in the world. Max is 5, a Harry Potter clone; he's an exhausting, whirling... More >>

• Mad TV

  published June 6, 2002

  Sanchez: Photo by John Anderson More >>

• Inhale With Hale

  published May 16, 2002

  You'd almost have to be stoned to mix pot and politics, particularly if you were running for prosecuting attorney. If elected, it would be your... More >>

• Dirty or Duped?

  published May 2, 2002

  Almost without warning, she bursts into a flash flood of tears. All it takes is for you to gently scratch the surface of her memory of the time... More >>

• The Next Breast Thing

  published February 14, 2002

  They are known by many names, some of which are endearing, silly or downright demeaning, none of which adequately describes our cultural obsession... More >>

• Radio Haze

  published January 24, 2002

  Rick Day has dedicated his life to two causes: marijuana and barbecued beef. Although he has smoked both--the latter as an award-winning caterer,... More >>

• What Didn't Happen

  published January 17, 2002

  Call me conventional, call me coarse, call me crazy, but I prefer my drama, oh, I don't know, dramatic. Give me a plot with a narrative structure... More >>