dustjacket idea for revised edition

my father's most beautiful photograph

photo: jackie theriot

Monique and Nicole are playing a new board game in their bedroom after Nicole's second birthday party. 

i dreamed . . .

. . . I drove a Spitfire Triumph from Catahoula to my apartment in New Orleans. Shifting from third to fourth, the Triumph lost some steam, so when I spotted a hitchhiking mechanic on the entrance ramp at Butte La Rose, I figured, rather than coming to a complete stop, I’d better just slow down and have him hop inside.

me one day old

illumination

photo: malcolm lidbury

Each of us is given a magic wand at birth.

the man who fell to earth

The script called for the character to attempt suicide by jumping from the fourth story of a mental hospital.

flower girl

We tunnel through the cosmos seeing only a tiny fraction of it.

me & my brother in an airplane

tell me about the time you threw away all your children's toys

photo: jetheriot

WHEN I WAS A KID I loved toys. I played with action figures until I was in the ninth grade. I loved moving their arms and their legs around and coming up with all these stories. In my mind, they all had personalities. And they all had their place in the hierarchy of my toy box. I took really good care of them, knowing that I’d give them to my own kids one day: vintage Matchbox cars from the 60s, action figures, cool stuff like that.

random weed leaf

photo: jetheriot

subtitle for e-book

"Can Peacefulness Be Prescribed?" is the story behind the Peaceful Habits app, an electronic prescription for peacefulness developed by neurologist Jude Theriot for the rehabilitation of emotions in survivors of brain injury.

yellowtops

I'm in the yellow shirt. Next to me, with her arms around me, is my sister Monique, squatting on one knee, and next to her is my older brother Luke. Behind us is Mamom, but you can see only her body in the photograph because her head was chopped off by the camera. We're standing on a dirt road near a trash pile surrounded by yellow wildflowers.

i dreamed . . .

. . . I survived a plane crash and didn't tell anyone, not until several years later when, revisiting the crash site in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego, I ran into my mother, who happened to be crossing over Highway 163 on a rickety pedestrian footbridge. I said, quite casually, "Did I ever tell you about the time I was in a plane crash?" I didn't want to make a big deal out of it.

me and luke in a lawn chair

undisappearing

photo: jetheriot

A tripod is built to be as unobtrusive as possible. It supports the camera sitting on top of it while staying out of the camera's way.