Writers. We Love Secrets.
The real secret is small, consistent efforts.
Continue reading ↗Fresh from the columnist’s desk
Florida life,
with the filter off.
Stories, columns, and aberrant observations about the truths we reveal when we think nobody is looking.
Recent observations
Columns in print
and online.
Larry’s newspaper columns bring a storyteller’s eye to public life, personal experience, and the wonderfully complicated character of Florida.
Writing · Sept. 25
Browse every column →Writers. We Love Secrets.
The real secret is small, consistent efforts.
Read the column ↗Florida wildlife · Sept. 24Florida’s Welcome Committee Has Teeth
Florida supplies the setup and leaves columnists fighting over punch lines.
Read the column ↗Health & humor · Sept. 16Human Lungs, or Fog Machines
Human lungs were never designed to be fog machines.
Read the column ↗Technology · Aug. 26Robots Are Ready for School - and Track Practice
Students build the robots. The robots teach the students. Then they coach football.
Read the column ↗Florida life · Aug. 24Legendary Florida Men and Women
Bad judgment is easy. Authentic Florida legend requires layers.
Read the column ↗Culture · Aug. 21The Last Generation to Remember Life Before the Internet
There was a time when leaving the house meant becoming unreachable. Some of us were there.
Read the column ↗Short fiction
Certainty ends.
The story begins.
Suspense, secrets, and ordinary people caught at the exact moment life takes an unexpected turn.
01Vietnam War storyThe Wire Between Us
Fergus Flemming stumbled backward as Garin Hooper’s fist whispered past his ear.
↗02SuspenseThe Six-Digit CallerSix red digits pulsed in the identification box on Myra’s screen.
↗03Family secretsWhen Blood Is the Only LinkWade came for answers. What waited in Room 826 was a family secret with a gun.
↗New here?
Start with these five.
Five quick introductions to Larry’s wry observations, Florida stories, and darker turns.
A novel by Larry D. CliftonMARTIN’S
SECRETSome truths refuse to stay buried.
SECRETSome truths refuse to stay buried.
The featured thriller
A secret can survive for years.
Until someone asks the right question.
A fiction thriller about the cost of concealment—and the dangerous distance between what we know and what we are willing to admit.
View the book on Amazon ↗
Meet the writer
A newspaperman’s eye.
A storyteller’s instinct.
Larry D. Clifton is a newspaper columnist and creative writer whose work spans commentary, short fiction, and the thriller Martin’s Secret. His columns have appeared in the Tampa Bay Times and other newspapers across Florida.
Whether writing from life or imagination, Larry looks for the human story beneath the headline.
More about Larry →A brief detour