Murder at the P. O.

My story, "Murder at the P. O.," has been accepted for publication in the first issue of Blank Fiction Magazine.  It will be out in November.

I wrote a version of the story years ago but never attempted to get it published. I knew it wasn't quite ready. But several months ago I took another look at it and began revising; leaving it for weeks at a time, and going back and revising, revising, revising, before finally deeming it might be publishable.

It was worth it, though, particularly when the editor of Blank added this note: We very much liked the way you braided the narrative together through different character perspectives.

And to a writer, that means the world.

A Woman

A woman is like a tea bag. You never know

how strong she is until she gets into hot water.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt ~

 

Art

 

The Answers

 
The answers are within me.
I only need to open my mind
and heart to find them.
 

~ Louise L. Hay ~ 

The Poem

As the sun sets and shadows fall,
she walks in purple dusk...

I was very curious when I was a child, always asking questions:

"Why does Mr. Bill walk everywhere?" 

"He doesn't drive," Maw Maw Wilson said, "Never has."

"Why did Mr. Riley just stand there and not say a word when Brother Crider told him to give the closing prayer?"

"He's always been backward."

Although Maw Maw's answers didn't contain much detail, I was satisfied.  They made sense. 

What didn't make sense were the answers I got when I asked why everyone in the neighborhood got so upset when Lily Worthington's husband took her to Memphis every now and then.  They discussed it relentlessly, shaking their heads, voices down to murmurs, pained looks on their faces.

"She has spells sometimes," Maw Maw explained, "And makes a lot of cakes."

Mother's answer was a little more detailed; she said Lily had problems, which caused her to stay up all night, making cakes.

But I didn't understand that.  Mother and my grandmothers made cakes; every woman I knew made cakes.  Even I made cakes.  We made them during the day, of course, but what was wrong with making them at night?  And why did Lily's husband have to take her to Memphis because she made cakes? 

That is why, after all these years, I wrote "The Poem."  Although the idea for the story came from Lily, it is purely a work of fiction.   

"The Poem" was accepted by The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.  You can find it here.  

On Writing

 

If you do not breathe through writing,

if you do not cry out in writing,

or sing in writing, then don't write,

because our culture has no use for it.

~ Anais Nin ~

An Honest Book

I've received great news.  Shapato Publishing has accepted my story, An Honest Book, for inclusion in their upcoming 2013 anthology, the sixth in a series of true stories about growing up on farms or in small towns in the Midwest. 

The book, Needle in a Haystack, will be available on Amazon in October.