I’m not exactly sure what Larry does. I’ve worked in this office building eight years now and haven’t figured it out. Larry was here when I started and he still appears. Not all the time. Not every day. Sometimes I’ll go a week without seeing him. But he always pops back up. By the coffee […]
Five years ago, I created this column to research and discuss failure and success as a writer—a column without delusions or lies that presented strategies for working in an unfair business. It was meant for me and writers like me who were still swinging after fifteen years, nowhere near the bright lights but refusing to […]
On the morning of the last day of the faith, you bring me a bowl of fresh milk and a flower from your garden. Its petals are pristine, even though you had to carry it all the way up to the temple in the pocket of your apron. Every step is a battle now, despite […]
The deer, who is not really a deer, flees. Her heart beats frantic against the prison of her ribs. White froth rises in her mouth to choke her. She dares not slow, though, nor stop to rest. Else the man who loves her will find her again, and there are worse things he can cause […]
Hers are small, hidden magics. Subtle. Deniable. Here and now, she is Elda, a weaver, her shuttle carving magic across the warp and back again, weaving protection into the cloth. She sets her loom outside her cottage, shaded from the summer sun. The scent of flowers is heavy in the air. When she looks up, […]
Vadis reaches for the ray of light stabbing through the single hole left in the shutters, but her mother grabs her, drags her away from the beam. “Why, mama?” whines Vadis. “I want to see the sun.” Her mother holds her, squishing her with work-hardened arms. Mother’s arms have gotten thinner since father went away, […]
Getting published means getting out of the slush pile. Surviving the slushpile means getting past slush readers. The thing is, slush readers are perennially grumpy. Probably drunk too. Okay, that’s just me, but the point still stands. So what do you do? I have had some amount of success with Lovecraftian incantations, but you can […]
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