Two days on the road, two thousand miles on my motorcycle. Hard miles; my ass so sore that every bump in the road brings biting pains up my back and down my legs. I’m riding alone. No highways. No hotels. Camping in fields and eating in greasy diners. Seeing the America not available to the Interstate. The real America. I’m rough riding across the continent and this isn’t a mid-life crisis. I’m...
Cancer is a Terrorist. And terrorists are a cancer. On September 11, 2001 a group of determined terrorists shocked, horrified, and angered the nation by killing over 2,000 people on our own soil. America found out that where we thought we were safest, we were vulnerable. We learned that where we thought ourselves strong, we were weak. It was a critical blow to our national...
Eighteen months ago I was diagnosed with cancer; so began a whirlwind of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Throughout it all my motorcycle sat unused, unloved, and untouched in the driveway. That motorcycle sat, and sat, and sat in the driveway. Never moving. Never getting started. Never getting the attention it needed to stay in running condition. While I was recovering from surgery, my...
Last night was the first meeting of the Orlando chapter of the Voices of Survivors Foundation. It was great to meet and chat with other cancer survivors. I wasn’t prepared for how close and quickly the connection came between survivors. As a mostly solitary man, I have never, in person, shared details of my cancer and survivorship. I use my blog for that. Other survivors immediately...
I have a fat lip – and it’s making me nervous. Yesterday I discovered what felt like a small lump below my lip. It was painful to the touch. It felt like an ingrown hair along the shaving line of my bottom lip. Throughout the day I felt it and it was sore, but there was no visible sign of the zit or ingrown hair. Then, last night, my lip started to swell. Within an hour it looked...
Flash Fiction Theme: “Alien Healthcare” Location: Earth after Aliens Coexist with Humans Required Phrase: “sassafras soup” Uninsurable by Ron Sparks “…but I’m dying,” my translator decoded the burps and hiccups that emerged wetly from the Jovian’s speaking orifice. Strictly speaking their race wasn’t from Jupiter, but that’s where...
Ron Sparks is a technology professional, science fiction and fantasy author and poet living in Zurich, Switzerland. His latest book "ONI: Satellite Earth Series Book 1" is available on Amazon.com.