SELECTED ESSAYS AND FICTION

Friendly Skies – NPR’s “All Things Considered”
Exhausted from being up all night, KC squeezes her way up the crowded aisle of Dulles’s ancient, space-age mobile lounge. She has never needed to sit down so badly, and yet this morning there is standing room only.

How I Earned My Wings Back – The New York Times
By the time he was perched on one knee and presenting an engagement ring, I feared it was too late to tell the love of my life that we had been brought together not by fate but as a result of my nationwide crusade to find a pilot.

Wake up, flight crews! – The Los Angeles Times
Pilots asleep at the yoke and flight attendants so tired their mental states can be likened to a drunken stupor

Early Departure – The Potomac Review
It’s September 18, 2001, exactly one week after we lost two of our aircraft and sixteen of our air crew, and I am back in the air for the first time.

Into the Frying Pan – Story Quarterly
Pilot Rick looks at the passengers across the aisle and then at me, his face reddening as he yells, “We’re full of fuel. We’ll catch on fire!”

The Pretenders – The Whistling Fire
A surrogate gift and a feigned smile prove it really is the thought that counts.

Anything with Two Legs and a Pulse – Travelers Tales
What happens when your date introduces his life-size doll.