I hope you and your families are all doing well. Whether you’re locked in your apartment or taking care of patients or helping keep grocery stores open, thank you, and I hope this little handful of a story brings you some joy.
Body Bound is featured today on fresh.ink (which will email you a short story every day if you sign up). It’s an oldie of mine, and super short.
I hope you like it, and stay safe!
It’s her birthday!
p.s. Shout-out to the amazing woman at PetSmart who brought a new collar to the car when Murphy’s broke yesterday!
I hope you’re doing well in this surreal, scary time. I never thought the pandemic apocalypse would have such nice weather and reliable Petco delivery. Hats off to healthcare workers on the front lines of this, and essential workers, and my Petco delivery driver. We’re thinking about you.
If you’re like me, excited for the next human interaction via Zoom, and fantasizing about your next great adventure, you should watch an episode of “The Horn.” It’s about Air Zermatt’s search and rescue team on the Matterhorn. The heights make my palms sweat, and the rescues they pull off may just make you forget that you’re supposed to stay six feet away from everyone!
In writing-related quarantine news, the magazine fresh.ink is worth a look. It’s free, and you can read online, download the app, or subscribe and get a story to your inbox every day. They curate stories that have already been published, so they’re only sharing the best. (Exciting disclaimer — if the internet doesn’t collapse, fresh.ink is publishing a story of mine at the end of April.)
And when you get sick of watching, reading, and boredom-eating, the 100 pushup challenge is both entertaining and painful! I did the Day 1 workout yesterday, and my upper body is very sad (yet getting so swole). Anybody think we’ll all stay out of trouble and be able to do 100 in a row in 6 weeks? My dogs are skeptical, but at least they have a variety of dog treats to nibble.
School’s out! We made it! Congrats to all students, parents, and other school-affiliated creatures!
Now that we’re done for the year, it’s time to lay in the sun, heal up our stitches, and sink our teeth into something delicious. (Yup, Barkley’s got about ten more days of cone left from a cut by something vicious in the backyard.)
The Emerson Review ran a short story of mine called “Pencil Thief” in their latest issue! The first story in the magazine features an armadillo that I can’t get out of my head, and there’s an amazing poem about eating disorders that is to be read forward and then in reverse. It’s all free online — Check it out!
If you’re craving something longer, something with aliens, and something you’ll be thinking about for a while, check out Cadwell Turnbull’s The Lesson. The novel comes out in mid-June, and features aliens who settle over the US Virgin Islands. I think one of the things Cadwell does best in his writing is to treat all characters as fully realized. Every single person (or alien) that he develops has a lifetime’s worth of problems, and fears, and dreams, and each character’s complexities drive tension and plot. I tried to learn from his attention to character while we were at NC State, and am still learning. (Yes, we attended NC State at the same time. No, I don’t make any $ in talking about him.)
Last but certainly not least, THANK YOU everyone who looked into my poetry chapbook! We made it into the top 10% of books sold on Amazon!
Enjoy the beginning of summertime, everybody, and happy reading!
In other news, the kitchen smells of baking olive and rosemary bread, the dog’s asleep on the couch, and I’m getting ready for the first day of school.
I’m very excited that my short story “Wedding Planning” is up at AntipodeanSF! AntipodeanSF is a fun online magazine (and radio show) of scifi and fantasy. The story’s a little goofy, a little odd, and should offer at least one chuckle. At least my dog enjoyed it!
Miranda Forman 