About The Piece: “I’ve always been intrigued by the interweaving of fiction and reality. Mimicking a well known science fiction series itself raises the issue. As viewers we have all been temporarily transported to other worlds by these space fantasies. The actor portraying the spaceship commander in my story “Spaced Out” (an obvious homage to Captain Kirk) lost his sense of reality and became his character. He bridged the gap between make believe and real in his life. To keep the series going, the other actors and director had to accommodate his delusions. The Commander fell in love with an enticing green alien woman  in the series who ultimately converted to a true life girlfriend when he recovered his senses. This seemed only fitting. Didn’t all of us viewers of the parodied TV show secretly want such a romance to occur?”

About The Author: “Now retired in San Diego, I formerly functioned as an attorney/entrepreneur – getting an idea and turning it into a business if it looked promising. Many of these did not work out. Fortunately, some did quite well. The real satisfaction in that career came from the creative and imaginative parts of starting something new. Writing fiction has proven to be a somewhat similar experience – stimulation in the act of writing, but disappointments if a work fails to be published. In my former career, all writing required was necessarily factual, formal, and dull. Learning to use language in a natural and entertaining way has been a challenge. So, it has been rewarding to have had numerous stories published. I thought it possible that the youthful adventurous spirit of Euphemism might be a fit for my story.”