My short story “Stella’s Radio” was published this week by Delay Fiction. It’s a story about love and connection, about the awkwardness that sometimes attends the becoming of who we truly are, and about the way life’s circumstances can propel us into the open, out from the cover of normalcy and safety and little dreams. I didn’t know these things when I sat down to write it. A story begins with some little nudge of […]
I’m taking a brief break from the What I Believe series to announce that my short story entitled On a Night in Shelby County was named as an Editor’s Pick in this year’s Literary Contest at Solstice Literary Magazine, and was posted this weekend. I also learned a couple of weeks ago that a story I wrote this spring was a named finalist in this year’s Fiction Contest at Salamander Magazine. So little by little, […]
I could suggest I’m grappling with writing—with the idea of writing, perhaps, and how the idea crumbles when I sit down to write; how I pan in the dust for gold and will myself to proceed though a dense and peculiar metal, of itself, is meaningless; how I come up dry and uncertain, but then find a sparkle or two in the half-light just as I turn away, and suddenly am renewed—but the real grappling is […]
The electric yellow moped caught my attention because it was bright as an eye exam, despite the distance, and because it was tracing a gentle line through space, humming its way along a cock-eyed geodesic around the hill. My focus collapsed, and I lost myself into a cloud of blank-faced calculations. When I came back from wherever it is I went, I was convinced the small vehicle and it’s intriguing cargo were very likely inbound. […]
This is the fifth and final chapter of this short foray into fiction. Here is a link to the first for those who may wish to start at the beginning. We’ll return to our normally scheduled programming shortly, which as you may well have surmised, means I have no idea what comes next. Thank you so much for reading… * * * * * Thinking there was a distinction between what was Love and what […]
This is Part 4 of 5. One more to go… Part 1 is here, if you wish to start at the beginning. * * * * * He must have gone for help, the little junco, because when I awoke there were two of them. One on my side of the window, inspecting the sill– making those erratic steps that come in packs of four or five– and the other one outside, moving only its […]
This is part 3 of a short fictional series. So far the posts are all in order… So far… * * * * * They’d told me about the wire probably six months ago. The jumper wire. How it grew within us from the anode to the cathode like a clever root of ivy. The fuse of a self. A short circuit. It was a strange trick: cutting eternity out of the equation. Without access […]
This post is part of a short fictional series. It comes with a brief apology about the length. I’m aiming to keep each segment under a thousand words, but, well… yeah… The beginning is here. * * * * * Click. They were gone. The sound seemed to shrivel and disappear beneath the threshold, pulling every other sound with it. There was nothing left but my breathing, and the blank-faced stare of the walls. For a moment, […]
Well, I couldn’t squish this into a single post… I promise it won’t be too many. Welcome to my short foray into serial fiction… * * * * * It was just a small apartment. I don’t know what I had really expected, but not something so patently vacant. It would end here? There was a dinged up coffee table, a faded olive sofa that didn’t match the carpet, a landslide of unsorted mail on […]
I am ever grateful to you who have given of your valuable time this year to lend the gift of your presence, and to share a moment or two with me here by the fire. As a token of my heartfelt appreciation I have posted two new stories on the Fiction page today. They are intended as gifts to you, and I hope if time and desire present themselves in equal measure, that you enjoy them. I further […]
Embracing Forever 