Quotes from the book
Click on the titles from eight of the 15 stories for a look inside the book
Someone found Kate’s mother standing in
the shopping center parking lot, frightened
and clutching her handbag tightly against
her chest. She stood there, trembling, unable
to speak.
Doris Betts Award 2nd place, Pushcart and Best Short
Story Online nominee, published by North
Carolina Literary Review Online
He had never known his father, [the boy,
Bradley] explained to the old man… “He
died in the war. At Iwo Jima.” The old man
nodded again. The nod seemed to make it all
right that Bradley told him: that the old man
now knew about the empty space inside that
Bradley could not fill.
Published by The Tishman Review
“Well, now that prick knows there’s one
queer he can’t push around,” Arlen said. He
walked toward the door without looking
back. At least he still has his flounce, Boyd
thought as he watched Arlen leave.
Screen Craft Short Story Award semi-finalist
Deke grinned, showing his teeth… Deke’s
grin wasn’t friendly – it meant “don’t mess
with me.” The grin made Rusty
uncomfortable, especially when directed at
him.
There is “much to admire” in this story, the
editors of the New Yorker wrote in an email.
As the tornado roared toward him, he had
been racing up the driveway in the truck…
Now [the truck] had disappeared, evidently
sucked up into the void and dropped God
knows where. Boy, he needed a smoke.
Glimmer Train Award for New Writers
finalist and honorary mention. Published by
The Milo Review
On hot summer days the odor rose from the
murky surface of the sawmill pond and
spread over the area like a suffocating
membrane of decay. Sam Porter knew that
stench of rotting wood pulp: a sickly, sweet,
enveloping smell.
Only I knew that their secret was not a
secret at all…I knew that they were just
acting, that they truly wanted to be
something other than what they appeared to
be.
The Black River Chapbook semi-finalist
She loved this moment, the brief suspension
of time, neither coming nor going, the sense
that the sunset wanted to hesitate for a
moment, pausing to reflect briefly before
moving on, the past behind it, the future
ahead…
