Munky MindJ. Parrish Lewis was born and raised in Maryland. In his youth there, he and his brother had many adventures in the dogwood forests near his home. His nostalgia for these adventures has strongly influenced his characters, their relationships, and their perspective on the world they inhabit. He moved to California’s coast to earn his degree in communications and now lives with his family in the San Joaquin Valley. Lewis is profoundly deaf and uses American Sign Language to communicate. He enjoys hazelnut coffee, captioned movies, and walking his dog.
When I wait in line at the coffeehouse (or anywhere else, really) and there’s a bunch of people chatting in front of me and laughing and sometimes horsing around, I wonder just what it is that they’re saying. The usual response I’ll get from someone who is hearing is that these conversations that they overhear—or…
I can’t expect peace to find me, I have to look for it. I can’t expect inspiration to tackle me, I have to tackle it. I can’t sense what is beautiful about the world if I don’t use what senses I have to notice it. I can’t expect the best from others, because we aren’t…
Without By J. Parrish Lewis © 2018 They didn’t come for our guns, we surrendered them. On March 15, 2021, the inexplicable desire to be rid of every gun in my home woke me from my sleep. It wasn’t long before I learned that the same desire welled up within every gun owner. None of…
I just wrote a paragraph of this post and then deleted it. Not surprising. I may still keep deleting. It’s funny sad how I dislike my writing, usually. So rarely satisfied with anything that I write, which, I guess, is pretty much the norm for anyone who cares about being a writer. I lack originality…
The other day, I decided I wanted to get all three of my children started with a regular meditation practice. They’ve all had the opportunity to try it, but haven’t done so regularly. My motivation is primarily to give them a practice they can turn to when they need to deal with the stresses of…
I’ve been neck-deep in my writing projects lately, and I kept finding that writing other things distracts me from writing what I enjoy writing the most. Whew, what a mouthful of typewritten words. I have to admit that, although I frankly did enjoy writing it, I was happy to complete the short story Secret Signs.…
By J. Parrish Lewis Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 For nearly a week, Alice’s intended consequence for her mother, a perpetual cold shoulder, crumbled slowly until she gave in to her reality. No words, no apologies or favors, would get Alice what she wanted. She knew this because…
You know, I got up this morning with a plan to write a post about something. Nothing specific, I just figured I was due to write a post, which meant coming up with a topic of something I WANTED to write about. Nothing comes to mind. I’d rather work on my fiction, which means working…
When I was in High School, I spent the majority of my time alone, feeling invisible. At lunchtime most days, I’d get a couple packets of Nutty Bars and go to my little space in the Art classrooms, purposefully isolating myself rather than feel invisible in the cafeteria. For the first two years, I at…
