I never toe-squished from a rocky shore To wade into a duck-and-water cover That would salvage my muddy, sidestepping soul. The Mississippi sun’s baptismal fire Plunged me into chlorined, green-tiled bliss, A state of grace fogging my plastic goggles. This daily meditation ran long and lean, Broken by 32 concrete-grazed […]
Autumn blazed azure and gold, And a tickling thrill stole over me; Fingers slid down the curve of my neck, Then gently squeezed my clavicle, Playing me for a brilliant fool. I swayed into his embrace; Bronze, copper, and iron notes Skittered down and up my spine, In senseless musicality. Yellow squeaked […]
i took a turn under a luncheon sun for the unfurling of bearded iris flags, billows of color unwound from pencil-thin buds, petal-splashes of purple, violet, blue, and cream that I floated and then puddled into mud on flimsy pages of watercolor pads— in a class of middling women trying […]
A promise begins the newly released book How to Write Winning Short Stories: “Let this be a practical little manual of tips, designed to provide accessible, actionable advice to short story writers, particularly beginning or emerging writers, who want to write short stories for adult readers.” Author Nancy Sakaduski sticks to this […]
A few days after Santa dropped by, I yelled at my computer. It. Was. Slow. I. Was. Irritated. I argued with a thing. Why? A smart friend told me to get the monkeys off my back and the chatter out of my brain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I joined in the […]
