Jack Campbell Jr.

Category: Current Events

  • On Stephen Hawking and the Rise of the Geek

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    This morning, I woke to the news that Stephen Hawking had died. These days, celebrity deaths are nothing new. We are in a post-cult of personality age, when a surge of media options and advanced marketing abilities created a mass of celebrity. As time has gone by, those people have aged, and it is only…

  • The Invisible and the Forgotten

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    I didn’t give them much of a thought this morning. You probably didn’t either. Yet, they were there the entire time. I woke up in the house they built, cooled by the recently-repaired air conditioner. The warm shower woke me up thanks to the hot water they made possible. I got in the car they…

  • Olympic Imagination

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    The Olympics are an amazing thing. I’m not necessarily referring to the athletic feats accomplished, even though they are spectacular. They are amazing in how they develop a sense of national pride and teach admiration for dedication. A lot of the athletes at this year’s summer Olympics will never be rich because of their sports.…

  • Punch the Boogey Man in the Throat, News, and Free Flash Fiction

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    Punch the Boogey Man in the Throat, News, and Free Flash FictionWriter’s Block is a controversial subject among writers. Some see it as about as real as the monster in your closet. Others swear they have seen the beast up close and personal. I don’t believe in writer’s block as anything more than a manifestation…

  • New Flash Fiction and the Latest from The Confabulator Cafe

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    “Collectors,” the flash fiction piece that appeared at The Confabulator Cafe last Monday, is now available here on This Average Life. Find it on the pages list to the right. In my latest Confabulator Cafe blog, I write about what I consider to be my strengths as a writer, and what I enjoy about my…

  • Spring Resolutions

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    “Spring is the time of plans and projects.” – Leo Tolstoy, from Anna Karenina   The cold bite of the north wind gives way to the gentle caress of the south. The perpetual scent of cut grass and oncoming rains warms the senses as a reminder that the true New Year is upon us. If…

  • Site News – Script Frenzy and FREE FLASH FICTION!

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    Sometimes, when a piece of fiction gets published, the writer retains the rights after the initial publication. I have decided to make some of that work available on my site, free of charge to my readers. If you look beneath my photo on the right side of your screen, you will see a new page…

  • Our Lost Humanity

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    NOTE: I normally blog about writing and how it relates to life. However, I was so disgusted by what happened at Penn State this week that I could not help but blog my feelings. After all, in many ways that is what writing is about. In writing, we take life and distill it through words,…

  • Fahrenheit 2011

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    The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame – Oscar Wilde September is Banned Book Month. I have to confess that I never realized just how important it was while I was in high school.  I was lucky enough to attend a school where The Scarlet…

  • The Horror of 9/11

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    Ten years ago, the world changed.  9/11 is the most significant event of my generation.  With any luck, it will be  the last of it’s kind.  But I doubt it.  There has always been terror, and there have always been those who wield it.  Some, like myself and other writers, wield terror creatively, not to…