DONALD J. BINGLE

They say that recognizing that you have a problem is the first step in getting help. Screw that. I am a control freak and I like it that way. I see nothing wrong in trying to control the things that you can control. For example, when I travel by car, I prefer to be the one driving. It's not that I think other people are bad drivers, just that I'm more comfortable being a driver than being a passenger. (Since I'm a non-drinker, that makes me a handy designated driver, to

I'm not a big fan of writers writing for free or of the various websites, anthologies, and (mostly literary) magazines which expect writers to write for free. No, it's not that I need the money to eat and it's not like what most writers get paid to write short fiction (5 cents a word is considered pro rates, a payment which hasn't, I believe, changed much in the last fifty or more years) really amounts to that much. It just seems to be an odd thing to write for free or for pu