Jim Ruland is copywriter at a Los Angeles advertising agency and an aspiring screenwriter. His column "Money Talks" has been a regular feature of Flipside Fanzine - L.A.'s largest and longest-running independent music magazine - for over a year now. Jim can be reached at jruland@brierley.com. A Special Kind of Pain is his first published story.   Laura Joyce is a professor at a Maryland college, where she teaches interpersonal communication. The co-author of A Year of Living Consciously, a HarperCollins nonfiction title to be released in early 1999, Laura is now at work on a parenting book and a novel. She grew up in Howard County, Maryland, where she still lives and is raising three little tough-guys with gentle souls. In her spare time she waxes maudlin and writes bad poetry. She can be reached at ljjwrites@msn.com