The Second Calling I Do you know why I want to believe in ghosts? The night you died, the phone broke through our wailing. I answered a screen filled with zeros to echoes of silence. II As they wheeled you away, I kissed your forehead, the cold radiating through me like winter glass my frostbit…
Month: July 2013
To Matt
your image recedes, like a silhouette beneath dark waters the presence known by the points of light left in its wake, the way phosphorescent algae bursts to life as you swim. You cut through darkness with brilliance that hovers and shimmers long after you have glided beyond. Yet when I close my eyes you are…
Writing an Outline
Some writers swear by the outline, others …meh. Personally, I tend to write novels that are a bit convoluted, so I find an outline immensely helpful. I recently released The Wolf at His Door, and I am currently working on The Wolf in His Arms, the second book in the trilogy. In the second book…
Time Out of Mind (part 2)
Previously: Peter meets with his fiancée, Katrina, to inform her that he was accepted to graduate school in Seattle. Since he had already agreed to move to Chicago with her, Katrina storms out, and is hit by a car. A gentle tap on his shoulder jarred Peter from sleep. Flicking his eyes open, he stared…
Suffering the slings and arrows of reviews (one author’s POV)
Many authors have a love/hate relationship with reviewers. We love the ones who rate us high (4 or 5 stars) and hate the ones who don’t. I feel this is a poor approach. I’ve had a number of good reviews and a few that have smarted a bit. I have found, however, that most bloggers…
Time Out of Mind (Part 1)
Head resting in the palm of his hand, eyes fixated on a car parked across the street, Peter sat in The Victorian Parlor Cafe. The bright pink, painted tin ceiling and Victorian-era dolls and decor (that bordered on creepy) failed to cheer him. Very soon, Katrina, his fiancée, would join him. He thought of her…
Five elegies (elegy 5: the victim)
bound by blood red ribbons that had held her hair, a cloak of black engulfs her head— blinding her eyes, stifling her pleas as she awaits the next touch of his cold blade. She feels only her naked skin and open wounds, cold and hot, but has lost the ability to feel her body in…
Five elegies (elegy 4: the boyfriend
He stares at her picture: golden highlights, swinging in the hammock next to him. she was so wonderful to touch. her last breath is a question to him: her thoughts, prayers. What did he do to her before she died? How much did she suffer? he digs his nails into his gray sheets, wondering: where…
Five elegies (Elegy 3: the younger sister)
a dress is not worth so much as this. the fight should not have happened. cotton and stitch. But it’s mine after all, I am not to blame. I didn’t tell her to go. she had plenty to wear. So what if it matched her gray sweater. I should have gone like she…
Five elegies (Elegy 2: the father)
He must be strong not to cry. His wife needs his strength. As he walks into a world of satin lining, he thinks of her Prom. The satin and lace gown had flown around her like flocks of dappled canaries. Yellow is her favorite color. This satin shall shroud her. He winces. The gray light…
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