FIRST PLACE, NYCM Microfiction Challenge, November 2019. Genre: Horror; Prompts: “washing dishes” and “talent.” 250 words. *** “Ginger, Samson, Felix,” you sing softly, unpinning a dishrag from the clothesline on the patio. Their names, I assume. It’s been years since you said mine. The screen door bangs as you return to the kitchen. I count the bowls as you wash…
For Good Reason (Short Story)
A rookie poltergeist faces her toughest assignment yet—and this time, it’s personal. Written for YeahWrite SuperChallenge 14, October 2019. Prompts were: Location, outside a family member’s home and Object (which must be plot pertinent), a “pretty rock.” I never thought I’d write a ghost story in an open-genre competition but here it is! 980 words. *** Yellow? They painted the…
Sweet Dreams (Short Story)
It’s a totally bitchin’ summer for Anna, working at the Fotomat…until she realizes life isn’t all Kodak moments. Third Place, NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge 2, September 2019. Genre: Suspense; Location: A drive-through; Object: a boarding pass. 998 words. *** “God, these people!” Mandy flips through the glossy snapshots. “Piano recitals, graduation parties. Gag me.” “Can you not mess everything…
SHORTLISTED: The Carnival Fish (Short Story)
My 500-word flash piece THE CARNIVAL FISH made the shortlist for AWC’s September Furious Fiction competition! With only two days to write and a slew of unconnected prompts, I was really pleased with how this came out and I’m thrilled, of course, to be recognized in a field of 1000+ entries. Read it here. Scroll down to the second story.…
Table Twelve (Short Story)
Originally written for Writer’s Weekly’s 24-hour Short Story Contest, Summer 2019. The prompt was a rather long paragraph of text that had to be incorporated somehow in the story (either verbatim or in spirit). I won’t even bother to post it because I hacked it to bits. Many of those bits got flushed in post-submission polishing but a few are…
The Perfect Match (Short Story)
Young, literate, and Earthborn: female Six-Four-One is a perfect match for Muldoon, the casino tycoon. Things are about to get dangerously hot in the Ice Orbit. Originally written for NYCM Flash Fiction Challenge 1, July 2019, where it scored fourth in its heat. Genre: Science Fiction; location: a casino; object: a paper shredder. 1,600 words. *** The metal chair is…
Procrastination in Paris
Picture it with me, won’t you? A cafe table on a pedestrian-rich sidewalk, a minor capillary in the city’s bursting circulatory system. The street is quiet yet bustling, shaded from the summer heat by the long shadows cast from buildings that have been there for centuries, each facade so jaw-dropping in its ornate whitewashed glory that they all seem to…
Go West
My kids were on spring break last week. I would like to say we went on vacation, but really it was a trip: four hours on a plane to my hometown near Seattle for a family visit. I have loads of relatives that still live there, and while we weren’t exactly sipping margaritas on a tropical beach, we did have…
That time I wrote a sonnet
When we moved to Illinois last summer, one of the first things I did was start hunting for a new critique group. My old one back in Atlanta had been invaluable to me as a writer and I missed them terribly. I found a weekday group, close by, with a meeting time that worked with my kids’ school schedule, so…