I was seven years old when I lost my ability to smell, a disability known as ‘anosmia’, through an accident involving head trauma. Seven is often described as the “age of reason”, but for me this was more like a defining moment in an attempt at Darwinism. My family was…

When I want to be transported to a fantastical, dark, or ghostly realm with wonderful, unique, oddball characters and brilliant takes on human nature, I look to the brilliant writer Neil Gaiman. His wonderful work spans decades, worlds, genres, and formats. Want to see the Vikings duel in Valhalla? Check…

Warning: There Be Spoilers! Wanda Maximoff, also known as ‘The Scarlet Witch’ is a powerful female figure in the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe]. She can light the night sky, take down entire armies with her mind, shoot magic bolts from her burnt fingertips, and create faux worlds to hide in. Her heartbreaking motif of…

A New Orleans Tall Tale. By, Shannon O’Neill Author’s Note: I am not from New Orleans, so I know there are some things in here that are geographically/culturally inaccurate and some ways of speaking that aren’t spot-on. I wasn’t shooting for accuracy, just fun. …

How Grief Manifested Into Frustration in A Pandemic Year. By Shannon O’Neill Author’s Note: The word ‘Yahrzeit’ is Yiddish and is translated to mean “time of year.” In Judaism, there is a focus on carrying on the memory of those before us from generation to generation. …

A New York City Story. (Sort of.) Understand before I tell this story, which takes place about a decade before I actually lived in New York City (which was for 8 years, long after this takes place), that I have been visiting the Big Apple since I was about five…

(But Letting Go Is Not.) By, Shannon O’Neill. Essay. It is a common conundrum: wanting people to like you versus at least appearing to not giving a shit. The problem with wanting people to like you is that you risk measuring your self-worth by viewing yourself through the lens of…

Gasping. I am laying gasping for air, like Edna did before me. It seems our fate was sealed the moment we flew too far to the sun, as it were. I would say my life is flashing before my eyes, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. I am simply…

If you grew up on the South Jersey coast, you heard about the Pine Barrens. Long before there were Russian mob victims that went missing in the snow, long before that ridiculous story about the ‘Jersey Devil’ (allegedly the 13th child born of some Piney woman named Mrs. Leeds), long…