Tracy Petry

I remember turning sixteen back in the early 1980s.  Sixteen. Wow. That was probably bigger than twenty-one or even thirty.  Sixteen was, for us at the time the age of Independence.  It was the age when we could start working, and start driving.  Back then there were no "conditional" licenses or permits.  On your sixteenth birthday you could go to DMV, take the test and walk out with your full license.  I already had a car waiting for me - a 1974 Ford Pinto. It was so long ago the CT plates were still all numbers, no letters. My first plate was 686-696.  Yes, it was a Pinto, and it was ten years old when I got it but it was the first slice of real freedom I had.  We lived far from town in a place where there was no public transportation.  Once I got my license, on my birthday, I was off and running.  I got my first job immediately.   I will never understand this thing where kids are turning eighteen and twenty years old and do...

I spend a lot of time in the courthouses of Gaston and Cleveland Counties (NC) lately.  Working for a property management company is never easy but the year 2020 has presented a lot of unique problems for people like us. Yep, there is this thing called Covid which has effected pretty much everyone - even people who haven't so much as sneezed since early spring. For some it's brought tragedy and to others it's just an enormous inconvenience. For still others it's an excuse. We manage almost 400 homes so we've got a pretty good mix of all the above as tenants.  We have tenants who have had Covid (yes, and recovered). We've had tenants who have lost their jobs because "non essential" businesses closed down. We've also had tenants whose income has been completely unaffected and haven't missed a beat. Unfortunately we also have tenants who have not only not lost any income but have profited from the situation (hello, Stimulus?) and have made the dec...

The following is an excerpt from one of the new Cast Down series novels I'm working on. This one is called "Remnants".  It's a companion novel to "A New England Haunting" and can be read independently of the first book, though it will make a little more sense if read as part of the series. Old friends from Ridgefield may recognize the location I've chosen and put a spin on for this book. I'm using the first concept for the cover art here, but there is a piece of original artwork being created for the amazing cover that will go on the book once it's finished! Revelation 12:7-9 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. ⸎       ...