My short story Dirty Girl is now up at Storyglossia:
"I'd known Tina for less than three months and she already owed me two hundred dollars, money I needed for next semester's books. It was on my mind constantly, but I never mentioned it because no-one else had ever invited me out. I envied her bold clothes and loud, mouthy personality—the way she was good at attracting attention. But now I wished that I hadn't agreed to go gambling with her."
read the rest at Storyglossia
Anne Valente interviewed me about the story here.
Storyglossia is one of my favorite online literary journals, so I'm thrilled to be in February's issue. I've featured several stories from Storyglossia on this blog in the past year - here, here and here.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Baby Love
This story, written by Sara Levine and published by Necessary Fiction, has been selected for inclusion in Dzanc Books' 2010 Best of the Web:
"I had a baby.
“Why’d you have to have a baby?” Denny wanted to know. “There are so many babies on this block already. You know this neighborhood’s really changing. First the Starbucks and then we got a Gap.”
read the rest at Necessary Fiction.
Last week, fellow blogger and writer Dorraine Darden surprised me with a Sugar Doll award. The way it works is that the recipient has to reveal ten things about herself that readers of her blog may not know. So, with no further ado, here are ten little-known facts about yours truly:
1. I was born in Western Australia.
2. My husband and I met in a canyon in Utah on a climbing trip. At the time, I was living in Tennessee and he was living in Wyoming. For our first "date" we rendezvoused in Denver and went out to climb a mountain in the Wind Rivers. We had a terrible epic and I was so impressed with his calm demeanour throughout that I looked forward to climbing with him again. Roughly 3 years later, we spent our honeymoon ice-climbing in Alaska.
3. If I go too long without a run, I get extremely irritable.
4. I gave up my dream of being a professional writer many years ago and became a software developer instead. I dragged my old manuscripts all over the country with me and one day I read a few of my stories to my husband. With his encouragement, I started writing again and submitted two of those old stories to the 2009 Writer's Digest Writing Competition. They placed 1st and 4th in the Literary/Mainstream Short Story category.
5. I used to be fluent in French, but now can barely string a sentence together. I'm not happy about that!
6. I love Reggae music.
7. My two favorite books of all time are The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, and Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham.
8. I'm crazy about birds, especially penguins. OK, I'm crazy about ALL animals. When I was a kid, I went back and forth between wanting to be a zoologist and a marine biologist.
9. I love to cook dishes from all over the world. A typical week's worth of dinners at my house might include Ethiopian curry, Greek moussaka, South African meat pie and Sri Lankan sates. I make an Afghan sweet bread called rhote to take with me when I travel.
10. I drink home-made redbush chai all day long. Because I cook a lot, I order spices in bulk from The Atlantic Spice Company. To make the chai, I grind 3 tsp black peppercorns, 1.5 tsp whole cloves and 5 3-inch cinnamon sticks in my spice grinder, then mix with 6 tbsp loose-leaf red tea (redbush) leaves. Sometimes I add whole cardamom pods and/or Jamaica all-spice berries to the mix. Good stuff!
"I had a baby.
“Why’d you have to have a baby?” Denny wanted to know. “There are so many babies on this block already. You know this neighborhood’s really changing. First the Starbucks and then we got a Gap.”
read the rest at Necessary Fiction.
Last week, fellow blogger and writer Dorraine Darden surprised me with a Sugar Doll award. The way it works is that the recipient has to reveal ten things about herself that readers of her blog may not know. So, with no further ado, here are ten little-known facts about yours truly:
1. I was born in Western Australia.
2. My husband and I met in a canyon in Utah on a climbing trip. At the time, I was living in Tennessee and he was living in Wyoming. For our first "date" we rendezvoused in Denver and went out to climb a mountain in the Wind Rivers. We had a terrible epic and I was so impressed with his calm demeanour throughout that I looked forward to climbing with him again. Roughly 3 years later, we spent our honeymoon ice-climbing in Alaska.
3. If I go too long without a run, I get extremely irritable.
4. I gave up my dream of being a professional writer many years ago and became a software developer instead. I dragged my old manuscripts all over the country with me and one day I read a few of my stories to my husband. With his encouragement, I started writing again and submitted two of those old stories to the 2009 Writer's Digest Writing Competition. They placed 1st and 4th in the Literary/Mainstream Short Story category.
5. I used to be fluent in French, but now can barely string a sentence together. I'm not happy about that!
6. I love Reggae music.
7. My two favorite books of all time are The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, and Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham.
8. I'm crazy about birds, especially penguins. OK, I'm crazy about ALL animals. When I was a kid, I went back and forth between wanting to be a zoologist and a marine biologist.
9. I love to cook dishes from all over the world. A typical week's worth of dinners at my house might include Ethiopian curry, Greek moussaka, South African meat pie and Sri Lankan sates. I make an Afghan sweet bread called rhote to take with me when I travel.
10. I drink home-made redbush chai all day long. Because I cook a lot, I order spices in bulk from The Atlantic Spice Company. To make the chai, I grind 3 tsp black peppercorns, 1.5 tsp whole cloves and 5 3-inch cinnamon sticks in my spice grinder, then mix with 6 tbsp loose-leaf red tea (redbush) leaves. Sometimes I add whole cardamom pods and/or Jamaica all-spice berries to the mix. Good stuff!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Hunger
I ran across this story by Lily Brent last week:
"They couldn't get her to stop doing it. Crusts of bread, leaves of boiled cabbage, twenty-six grapes, flour in small plastic bags choked with red twist ties. They couldn't get her to stop doing it until she stopped doing everything, and after that it wasn't long until the end. Half bananas browning in their peels, dollops of sour cream in drawers, potatoes in slippers under the bed, red beets bleeding through the pockets of her pale yellow bathrobe."
read the rest at 42Opus
My good news for the week is that my short story The Shock Is What Kills You has been nominated for the 2010 Million Writers Award. I'm very honored by the nomination!
Happy Valentine's Day!
"They couldn't get her to stop doing it. Crusts of bread, leaves of boiled cabbage, twenty-six grapes, flour in small plastic bags choked with red twist ties. They couldn't get her to stop doing it until she stopped doing everything, and after that it wasn't long until the end. Half bananas browning in their peels, dollops of sour cream in drawers, potatoes in slippers under the bed, red beets bleeding through the pockets of her pale yellow bathrobe."
read the rest at 42Opus
My good news for the week is that my short story The Shock Is What Kills You has been nominated for the 2010 Million Writers Award. I'm very honored by the nomination!
Happy Valentine's Day!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
In Search of Biswas
My short story, In Search of Biswas, is now up at Amarillo Bay:
"My husband, Leo, loved me far too much. His face when he gazed at me in the silent evenings wore the patient, imploring expression of a good dog left out in the rain. And, like a good dog, he never barked, but simply sat on his haunches prepared to be saved. I didn't want to save him."
read the rest at Amarillo Bay
The new issue includes short stories by Lora Rivera, Timothy Reilly, David Regenspan and Robert Wexelblatt.
Due to the nefarious activities of a few unsavory characters, I've had to turn on comment moderation for this blog. This simply means that all comments have to be approved by me before being posted. I'll approve anything that doesn't include links to porn sites. In the meantime, don't click on any questionable links that you see in the comments.
"My husband, Leo, loved me far too much. His face when he gazed at me in the silent evenings wore the patient, imploring expression of a good dog left out in the rain. And, like a good dog, he never barked, but simply sat on his haunches prepared to be saved. I didn't want to save him."
read the rest at Amarillo Bay
The new issue includes short stories by Lora Rivera, Timothy Reilly, David Regenspan and Robert Wexelblatt.
Due to the nefarious activities of a few unsavory characters, I've had to turn on comment moderation for this blog. This simply means that all comments have to be approved by me before being posted. I'll approve anything that doesn't include links to porn sites. In the meantime, don't click on any questionable links that you see in the comments.
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Whale Hunter
This story, by Steinur Bell, was named one of the Top Ten Online Stories of the year by StorySouth. Parts of it are somewhat gruesome, so don't read it if you're very sensitive.
"On the Faroe Islands, men hunt puffins. They clutch long poles with a netted basket on each end and rappel sheer cliffs in makeshift harnesses. The puffins build their nests in the cliffs but are otherwise not so smart. Suspended, with rocks and frigid water hundreds of feet below them, the men net the birds and kill them. They tie the dead puffins around their waists."
read the rest at AGNI Online
"On the Faroe Islands, men hunt puffins. They clutch long poles with a netted basket on each end and rappel sheer cliffs in makeshift harnesses. The puffins build their nests in the cliffs but are otherwise not so smart. Suspended, with rocks and frigid water hundreds of feet below them, the men net the birds and kill them. They tie the dead puffins around their waists."
read the rest at AGNI Online
Friday, January 29, 2010
A Way To Do Good
Hans and Edna are a hard-working married couple living in Haiti. Until recently, they had three children: Immacula (14), Clifford (16), and Alex (9).
After the earthquake struck Haiti, Edna was the first to reach the family home, around 9pm. The house had collapsed. She heard her children screaming for help. She couldn't move the huge concrete blocks that had fallen on them, though she tried with all her might. She stayed with them in the darkness, calling into the rubble, trying to comfort them with her voice.
Finally, her husband arrived, bringing help, and they were able to free Clifford, then Alex, whose legs had been crushed. Hans carried Alex through the streets, trying desperately to find medical help, but his youngest child died in his arms. By then, Immacula was also dead. Hans had to bury both children himself, lying them side by side in a shallow grave.
If you're anything like me, you can't read this story without crying. But I'm not telling you about this just to ruin your day. Roxane Gay, editor of PANK magazine, is directly involved with this family and is taking up a collection to help them try to rebuild their lives. You can donate through Paypal. Even $5 would help - Roxane says the American dollar goes a long way in Haiti.
You can read more about the family on Roxane's blog, here and here. She has posted some pictures of them. To donate, send money via Paypal to rgay74 at gmail dot com. Anything you can spare, anything at all. All contributions go directly to Hans and Edna.
Pass it on.
After the earthquake struck Haiti, Edna was the first to reach the family home, around 9pm. The house had collapsed. She heard her children screaming for help. She couldn't move the huge concrete blocks that had fallen on them, though she tried with all her might. She stayed with them in the darkness, calling into the rubble, trying to comfort them with her voice.
Finally, her husband arrived, bringing help, and they were able to free Clifford, then Alex, whose legs had been crushed. Hans carried Alex through the streets, trying desperately to find medical help, but his youngest child died in his arms. By then, Immacula was also dead. Hans had to bury both children himself, lying them side by side in a shallow grave.
If you're anything like me, you can't read this story without crying. But I'm not telling you about this just to ruin your day. Roxane Gay, editor of PANK magazine, is directly involved with this family and is taking up a collection to help them try to rebuild their lives. You can donate through Paypal. Even $5 would help - Roxane says the American dollar goes a long way in Haiti.
You can read more about the family on Roxane's blog, here and here. She has posted some pictures of them. To donate, send money via Paypal to rgay74 at gmail dot com. Anything you can spare, anything at all. All contributions go directly to Hans and Edna.
Pass it on.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
What Shark Attack Can Teach Us About Love
This beautifully written story, by Caryn Cardello, is the author's first publication:
"The room is full of candles and the apartment is too small, making everything seem aglow and also slightly dangerous. We’re here for dinner and girl-talk in this empty desert town, all of us miles from home. The ex-Catholic from Louisiana makes gumbo at her graduate student stove while the atheist from Alabama talks to the Mormon about sex. Alabama married her high school sweetheart and—maybe it’s the accent—often sounds the most conservative among us, despite the fact that she isn’t, that none of us are, that she’s the only one brave enough to breathe the word “atheism” even after all these university degrees.."
read the rest at Spork Press
Last week, Necessary Fiction asked contributors to send in a few words about what inspired them to write in 2009. This is my contribution.
Also last week, Night Train accepted one of my short-shorts. I'm a huge fan of Night Train, so this is very exciting for me. Check out this amazing flash currently up on their site (by Laura Valeri):
"You were always too slow, your father used to say, too slow dodging the other girls' hands blocking your shots, slow to move out of the way, slow to catch up, slow to make the basket—just like when you were ten, at ski camp, he'd remind you, where you were sent in hopes you'd learn some self-preservation skills, hopes all but lost the day of the storm when the competition was canceled. . . ."
read the rest at Night Train
"The room is full of candles and the apartment is too small, making everything seem aglow and also slightly dangerous. We’re here for dinner and girl-talk in this empty desert town, all of us miles from home. The ex-Catholic from Louisiana makes gumbo at her graduate student stove while the atheist from Alabama talks to the Mormon about sex. Alabama married her high school sweetheart and—maybe it’s the accent—often sounds the most conservative among us, despite the fact that she isn’t, that none of us are, that she’s the only one brave enough to breathe the word “atheism” even after all these university degrees.."
read the rest at Spork Press
Last week, Necessary Fiction asked contributors to send in a few words about what inspired them to write in 2009. This is my contribution.
Also last week, Night Train accepted one of my short-shorts. I'm a huge fan of Night Train, so this is very exciting for me. Check out this amazing flash currently up on their site (by Laura Valeri):"You were always too slow, your father used to say, too slow dodging the other girls' hands blocking your shots, slow to move out of the way, slow to catch up, slow to make the basket—just like when you were ten, at ski camp, he'd remind you, where you were sent in hopes you'd learn some self-preservation skills, hopes all but lost the day of the storm when the competition was canceled. . . ."
read the rest at Night Train
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