When I sit down to write fictional stories, the setting is always the same, and the setting is way out west in California. I don't know other places well enough, and even if I grow to, which I might now that I live in the Midwest, my bones quite literally grew to their capacity in…
Tag: fear
And I Will Tell About It
What do we share when we stop hiding ourselves away? This is, of course, the internet, social media, the shame over guilt culture of appearance and perfection, and in these realms we skirt the truth, muddy it up, maybe forgo it all together. What happens when we decide, I'm going to share it? We're free.…
Eighteen
fiction short The other girls are smarter. Did you hear that one go on and on about Prufrock? You didn't get any of that from reading the poem. (You set it down every other line to take a hit, yes, but you still read it, and you still turned in a fine essay. The professor…
How to move to a new city, get pregnant, get married, and not take Valium
Imagine you meet a man (or woman) who you know you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with, (and how do you know this? Well, you don't entirely, but you just sort of feel it, you know you can tell this person the truth and look ugly in front of him and even…
Continue reading ➞ How to move to a new city, get pregnant, get married, and not take Valium
Widening Rings
When you first start feeling less afraid, you want someone to pinch you. Is this real? And do I deserve it? After the exhaustive stretch of hyper-vigilance and over the shoulder gazing, of expecting lurking danger at every turn, the realm of trust and serene neutrality can feel like a trick. Sleight of hand only,…
One Hundred Forms of Fear
When you're a child, all sorts of things may scare you: the dark, spiders, witches, whatever monster is lurking under the bed. As you grow though, and most of those acute fears lessen or vanish, a different brand appears, and it usually more subtle, an underlying sense of dread or insecurity. When I was trudging…
A Full Life 