TBR: Admit This to No One by Leslie Pietrzyk

TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe.

 

Editor’s note: Why, yes, I’m interviewing myself for my own blog interview series! Seems about right when I’m the all-powerful editor here and the author of a book of short stories that examines power….

 

 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

ADMIT THIS TO NO ONE is a collection of linked-ish short stories set in official DC. Recurring characters include (an imagined) Speaker of the House, his two daughters from various marriages, and Mary-Grace, his personal fixer. Family estrangement, race, gender, abortion…nothing is off the table as these characters grapple with the ways the pursuit of power ripples and informs personal, work, and societal relationships. Can anyone emerge unscathed?

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

I love all my characters, especially because they’re each uniquely complicated and uniquely flawed and maybe a tiny bit annoying from time to time, just like the people I know in real life, just like I am in real life. Maybe my favorite to work with was Mary-Grace, the all-powerful, all-knowing fixer in the Speaker’s life (also known as the She-Beast). It was fun to contemplate someone who is so skilled yet content to remain in the shadows. She showed me the value of hiding one’s power and reminded me that yielding is sometimes the more powerful move.

 

The Speaker was tough to write. I didn’t want him to be a cardboard villain, and I didn’t want him to be what readers think of when they think “politician.” Nor did I want him to be some sort of idealistic hero. All that, and then I couldn’t find my way into first person POV with him, which meant I had to push myself to use third person, the POV that I find the most challenging to write.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

I don’t exactly have highs and lows with this book, but I do have a journey. First, some of these stories come from a failed political novel that I started working on in early 2015. I could never quite get to a plot, but I wasn’t overly worried because I loved the characters and the milieu. Then—you guessed it—Trump was elected, and in the spring of 2016, I realized that I didn’t want to be immersed in fictional politics (and I wondered whether readers would want to be either). What a relief when I decided to shelve this book, though I salvaged parts for short stories, one of which won a Pushcart Prize, giving me a boost of confidence.

 

Fast forward to late 2019.

 

I thought I had a book of random short stories—some published, some not; some from the failed political novel, some not—that I could enter in contests. Contractually, I was required to show the next book to my SILVER GIRL editor at Unnamed Press…who saw that the stories were linked more closely than I’d envisioned. I was intrigued. We were at the precipice of hammering out a contract and talking more about a vision when—you guessed it—the pandemic struck. As you’ll recall, that wasn’t really the time to be putting together book deals! Needing to surround myself with comfort, I decided to pull together some half-written pieces about some of these characters and themes and finish them, writing toward an evolving vision of how this book could coalesce into something more than a book of “random short stories.” In the fall of 2020, I reconvened with my editor, who was ready to talk about a future and ready to read what I’d done over the past months. She was excited about the direction the book was taking, and in the fall and winter of 2020-1, I wrote more stories, filling in the gaps…my book emerging as the vaccines were inching closer to general availability. Feels weird to say this, but the isolation and slowed-down life of the pandemic definitely helped me find the focus for this book, and working on this book definitely helped me cope with the pandemic.

 

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

You’ll see it below when I play interviewER, so instead I’ll offer one of the most concrete, useful bits of writing advice I’ve picked up along the way, about writing dialogue: when revising, always try taking off the first few words of each line of dialogue you’ve drafted. The result usually is tighter and truer to life.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

The last story, “Every Man in History,” surprised me with its hopeful note. I had in mind a whole involved plot with a bunch of difficult twists and turns and hidden (likely pompous) commentary about various social ills, but in the end, Madison, one of the Speaker’s daughters, demanded a better outcome for herself and, really, for the reader and the collection. I’ve never in my life been a writer to say that characters “take over,” but in this case I remember thinking as I typed out the draft of a scene, “Wait, what? This is the ending? Could this really be the ending? OMG…this IS the ending.” I do feel that Madison found this surprising yet inevitable perfect ending for me (though she was nowhere to be found when I spent an entire afternoon wrestling with the last paragraphs, eventually adding two words that finally clicked everything into place).

 

How do you approach revision?

 

I love revision, which is good, since this book required a lot of it—yes, even though many of these stories had been published already. I had to revise stories that I considered finished, needing them to capture the tone of the overall book and link in with the vibe of people working in “official DC”; it was hard re-entering a world I thought was complete. I also had to revise because various technologies and/or events and/or references were outdated or because some new and horrible thing happened that I wanted to acknowledge or because wily teenagers and their interests shift by the minute, affecting the POV and voice of a story. The structure of “Kill the Fatted Calf” almost killed me, trying to organize a non-linear, impressionistic story that contained the core of Lexie’s relationship with her father. Most of all, and most importantly, I did a lot of revising and hard thinking and listening because I wanted to get right the stories that involve race.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

This is my absolute favorite question on this list that I myself created, so it’s going to haunt me that though there’s plenty o’ food in this book—tuna tartare, overcooked fish, crab cakes, arena popcorn, an orange, a secret to frying chicken (that I’ve not yet tested), bagels, doughnuts, beef jerky, Talenti, shrimp, lobster at The Palm, Triscuits, martinis—there are no truly notable meals. In my real life world, good food is the highest currency, but these characters have a different agenda. Everyone here is on the run with no time to focus on cooking, which I hadn’t noticed until now. I suppose that’s how it’s going to be in a book that’s exploring power dynamics. In contrast, here’s a very humble recipe that I must admit comes from a surprising source:

 

https://www.lesliepietrzyk.com/books/admit-this-to-no-one/

(scroll to the bottom to learn how to make “Boys Town Chicken”)

 

*****

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: www.lesliepietrzyk.com

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER: https://www.lesliepietrzyk.com/books/admit-this-to-no-one/

 

BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: I’m not going to get worked up if you prefer the ease of ordering via Amazon, but if you’d like to support independent bookstores, try your favorite or Bookshop— https://bookshop.org/books/admit-this-to-no-one-collected-stories/9781951213411 -- or if you’d like to support small presses, order from Unnamed Press here— https://www.unnamedpress.com/books/book?title=Admit+This+to+No+One

 

READ A STORY, “Hat Trick”: https://www.storymagazine.org/hat-trick/

 

 

 

 

 

New Piece of Flash Up on Cleaver Magazine!

I drafted this in my prompt writing group, when the words we wrote to were, first, “winter” and then 15 minutes later, “distance.”

Here’s the opening:

Like you’re supposed to hate winter, with its cold and mountains of snow and how slip-walking on ice is a bitch and all that shit. Honestly, I love it. Honestly, I’d move to Alaska or the Arctic Circle or the South Pole if anyone would let me. In another life, I’d beg to be a penguin. Or a polar bear, except they’re going extinct. Jase is staring at me like he always does when I’m not talking, like I’m supposed to entertain him with “scintillating” chatter 24/7, and whenever I’m not doing that I’m only a girl who’s failing in some deep and significant way.

Only about 800 more words to go, so you might as well read the rest, here.

On Writing: When the "Dark Place" Has You by the Throat

Here’s an essay I wrote about a dark writing time in my not-so-distant past, originally published in the Delmarva Review, and now online, thanks to their partnership with the Spy publications:

Enticing excerpt:

For several years, I had been in a different sort of dark place, the one where every other writer in America had a new book being rave-reviewed and winning A Major Award. I had written a beautiful novel that had been rejected by every publisher in America. This was actually the second novel in a row I had written to be rejected by every publisher in America. The notes from my agent were getting brief. Because I’d focused on writing novels, I didn’t have many short stories to send around for a possible hit of lit journal publication, and anyway, the short stories I did have had been rejected by every literary journal in America. My favorite things about my writing life then were leading workshops, making pronouncements about writing, and watching students improve under my sharp eye. I can still teach, I thought, at least there’s that.

Read the rest:

https://talbotspy.org/delmarva-review-dark-vs-darker-by-leslie-pietrzyk/

(And I'll add that the story in question is included in THIS ANGEL ON MY CHEST: "Chapter Ten: An Index of Food (Draft).")

SILVER GIRL Available at a Stock-Up Price of $9!

Passing along this information from my wonderful publisher, Unnamed Press:

Hunting Party by Agnès Desarthe and Tacky Goblin by T. Sean Steele are both officially out today, which marks 50 books here at Unnamed Press!

To celebrate, we're offering a 50% discount on our website for the next 5 days. Experience the books that made us, and take a chance on something new.

When we think about all of the years of work (from writing to editing to production and publicity) that went into each of our 50 titles and the wonderful authors who made them, it's almost hard to believe. We're going to enjoy this for a little while.

Have a look at our website, where the discount is in full effect, and most books are around $8 each. (INCLUDING SILVER GIRL!!!!!!!!)

Some Scraps of SILVER GIRL News & One Additional Thing

SILVER GIRL is now available on audio, through Audible.com. You can access an audio version on Amazon or directly from Audible. 

And check Curtis Brown Ltd. on Instagram on Thursday, April 26, 2018, when they will be giving away a free audiobook edition!!

*****

Speaking of social media, if you’re on Facebook, check out this conversation and reading on  FB Live!, with Patricia Smith at Chop Suey Books in Richmond, VA. I’m good enough, but Wonton the cat is the real star of this show!

*****

I will be offering another one of my prompt writing classes at Politics & Prose Bookstore in June. The theme is especially interesting this time, “The Art of Losing,” guided, of course, but Elizabeth Bishop’s iconic villanelle “One Art.” (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, drop everything and read it here immediately, and if you do know, reread it just because.)

These classes often sell out, so don’t wait too long.

Wednesday, June 13

6:30 p.m.– 9 p.m.

Class ~ Right Brain Writing: The Art of Losing

Politics & Prose

Washington, DC

Explore your creative side in this session, one of a series of stand-alone classes with prompts designed to get your subconscious flowing. Through guided exercises, we’ll focus on writing about the variety of losses we have encountered in our lives, the large and small absences that inform our landscape. Elizabeth Bishop calls it “the art of losing”; where is the art in saying goodbye? No writing experience necessary! This is a great class for beginners and also for those fiction writers and/or memoirists with more experience who might be stuck in their current projects and are looking for a jolt of inspiration. Our goal is to have fun in a supportive, nurturing environment and to go home with several promising pieces to work on further.  Please bring lots of paper and pen/pencil or a fully charged computer. Note: new exercises!

More information.

Review in The Millions

(And what a review!)

"Silver Girl is an act of mesmerism, of misdirection; it appears slight and forgettable, but turns out to have more substance and permanence than half the novels on a given bookshelf. Thematically, it’s ambitious: irreconcilable conflicts regarding money abide within it, as well as enduring mysteries about female friendship and a spooky motif of displacement and replacement. Nothing is as it seems between its pages, or between its characters."

Read the rest: https://themillions.com/2018/03/silver-girl-by-leslie-pietrzyk.html

SILVER GIRL...the countdown begins!

Here's the link for ordering!

How to Get SILVER GIRL Right NOW! (well, almost)

The Chicago Review of Books has named SILVER GIRL one of the best books of February: 

https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/01/31/best-new-books-february-2018/

If you order directly from Unnamed Press, you won’t have to wait until February 27 to get your copy! They will send it out to you right away. Just a thought…. 

Here’s the link to order:

http://unnamedpress.com/books/book?title=Silver+Girl

A Star from PW for SILVER GIRL

I'm so thrilled with the review from Publisher's Weekly, which singled out SILVER GIRL for a STAR, calling it  "a profound, mesmerizing, and disturbing novel." !!!!!

Here's the review:

Silver Girl

Leslie Pietrzyk. Unnamed (PGW, dist.), $17 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-944700-51-5

                       

The latest from Pietrzyk (Pears on a Willow Tree) is a profound, mesmerizing, and disturbing novel that delves into the vagaries of college relationships and how the social-financial stratum one is born into reverberates through one’s life. The unnamed narrator—hailing from a poor family headed by an abusive father in Iowa—is befriended by her roommate, Jess, a charismatic Chicago socialite, during their freshman year at an unnamed university in Evanston, Ill. She wants to hide her past and reinvent herself. Meanwhile, Jess’s father sends his mistress’s daughter to live with the two girls after she accidentally poisons her mother. This strains the alliance between the two young women, already tenuous because of underlying jealousies and competitiveness. The narrator makes the same mistakes over and over again in her personal life, and the author posits that there is a way out, but at a cost. In addition to capturing college life on a Midwest campus, Pietrzyk brilliantly depicts the push-and-pull dynamics between the two women, resulting in a memorable character study. Agent: Kerry D’Agostino, Curtis Brown. (Feb.)

Here's the link so you know I'm not lying!

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-944700-51-5

Pre-Publication Praise for SILVER GIRL

I was updating my website (early!) this morning and was just feeling so, so happy about all these kinds words about my forthcoming novel!! And I’m grateful to the writers who took time out of their busy writing lives to read the book and offer their support.

“They think she is a simple, well-mannered girl, quiet and helpful. But the reader has seen into her past, knows her uncle, her little sister, her father, and all that happened back in Iowa. She is anything but. A dark, intense novel on a hot subject: female friendship complicated by class and privilege.”

~Kirkus Reviews

“Leslie Pietrzyk’s haunting SILVER GIRL begins in 1980, with a nameless narrator starting her freshman year at a prestigious Chicago-area university. The narrator escaped her economically depressed Iowa hometown, but the emotional baggage of a grim childhood and dysfunctional family continue to weigh her down like the bulky, cheaply made trunk that holds her belongings… SILVER GIRL concludes with a surge of hope, like the spring thaw after an icebound Chicago winter.”

~Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews (5 /5 stars)

“In SILVER GIRL, Leslie Pietrzyk fearlessly explores the complex inner life of a young woman and her myriad complicated relationships with friends and sisters, while unearthing secrets about her traumatic past. Pietrzyk treats her characters with incredible empathy and tenderness, producing a deeply affecting novel about the terrible things we ask our young women to endure.”

~Mandy Berman, author of PERENNIALS

“Unflinching, thoughtful, and sharp. SILVER GIRL is the story I’ve been waiting to read: complicated women navigating life with grit and grace. From small town Iowa to Chicago, rural to urban, haves to have-nots, SILVER GIRL delivers a poignant truth about how relationships and regret shape our definitions of home.”

~Melissa Scholes Young, author of FLOOD

“SILVER GIRL is a blunt and piercing character study of a young woman making choices that are both understandable and unthinkably wrong; we watch helplessly as our unnamed narrator digs herself in deeper and deeper, sabotaging nearly every relationship in her life. Pietrzyk writes insightfully about female friendship, personal morality and accountability, unspooling an eminently compelling plot and delivering us, finally, to a redeeming moment of grace.””

~Carolyn Parkhurst, NYT Bestselling author of The Dogs of Babel, Lost and Found, The Nobodies Album and Harmony

“The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Leslie and her stories is the courage and ferocity of her women. Women who must negotiate a culture not of their own design and not of their own choosing. Women who have experienced tragedy and misfortune. Women who have made mistakes. Women who are honest in their testimony, resourceful in their lives, daring, not shy.”

~Robert Olmstead, award-winning author of Savage Country, Far Bright Star, Coal Black Horse, and The Coldest Night

New Flash Fiction!

Here’s my story “Valentine’s Day” in Shenandoah that will probably take you about three minutes to read:

“It’s your worst habit.” She accuses him constantly, a waspish buzz to ignore: it’s the toothpick wagging between his teeth, or “Jesus fucking Christ” flying out even on Sundays, or letting crackers go stale with the inner bag left gaping open, or sleepwalking, or. “It’s your worst habit,” she says to all of that and to all the rest, a prissy smirk cemented on her face, and here it is tonight, already.

Read on: https://shenandoahliterary.org/671/2017/09/07/valentines-day-pietryk/

~AND~

Here’s my story “Leftovers” in Four Way Review that will probably take you about 45 seconds to read:

My English teacher said yesterday there’s no gift that doesn’t come with chains. No one was listening because she’s always spouting stupid crap but she, right at that exact second, started giving me her sharp-eye and I wrote it down and she smiled this tight way that prickled me.

Read the rest: http://fourwayreview.com/leftovers-by-leslie-pietrzyk/

Both pieces were written in my amazing prompt writing group…more info about that (and how you can incorporate prompts into your writing life) here: https://www.awpwriter.org/magazine_media/writers_notebook_view/39/prompt_writing_not_just_for_workshop

The Southampton Review Online Made Me an Offer I Couldn't Refuse

I have a new story in The Southampton Review!

It’s funny that when I submitted this story to this journal, I thought I had put it in consideration for the print journal. When they accepted the story for the online journal I was at first confused and then slightly irritated. But I consulted with the wise minds on Facebook which sparked a long and interesting thread about online vs. print publications. Maybe I have some residual bias toward print…but also, if this story were in print only, I would be begging you to fork out ten bucks to have a journal sent to you a week from  now.

But this is the beauty of online publications, as I was persuaded by FB's hive mind: ALL YOU HAVE TO DO NOW IS CLICK AND READ!

The Speaker claims the Wilson Bridge is his “secret place,” though as a section of I-95 crossing the Potomac (or: the nation’s most crowded highway spanning the river every op-ed reader recognizes as shorthand for out-of-touch politics), the Wilson Bridge is scarcely secret. The secret might be this pedestrian walkway alongside the southbound side of the bridge that is virtually unknown outside Old Town Alexandria (where the Speaker lives). Bridge and walkway link Virginia to Maryland, also not a secret… [Note: It's not Speaker of the House Paul Ryan!]

Read the rest: https://www.thesouthamptonreview.com/tsronline/2017/8/28/we-always-start-with-the-seduction

Fun fact: I now have TWO stories set on this walkway alongside the Wilson Bridge because I started one story that split off into two different stories with different characters, the first time such an odd thing has happened to me. It was rough going for a while, as I tried to wrestle the story into shape...but how happy I am that I gave up on that and accepted my fate! The other Wilson Bridge story will be coming out in Arts & Letters in the next few weeks.

"The Door of No Return" in South Carolina Review

My story “The Door of No Return” has been published in The South Carolina Review. There’s no link online at this time, but why not support a wonderful journal and buy a copy (see below)?

This story came about when I was part of a group writing to pieces of visual art. We were given a bunch of images and asked to pick four we could write about. I liked this picture because I’m often drawn to doors and paths. Plus, it was pretty. Plus-plus, I was certain I’d get my first or second choice. BUT circumstances led to me being assigned my fourth choice, which sort of annoyed me at first, and then stressed me out as I studied the artist’s work and realized that this “pretty picture” was part of a series about the Middle Passage. I knew I had to think hard about my approach to this image to do it honor, and in the end, I'm grateful for this assignment which pushed me out of my comfort zone…and I’m grateful to the South Carolina Review for publishing this piece.

More information about the artist, Keith Morrison: http://keithmorrison.com/

Keith Morrison’s Middle Passage series: http://keithmorrison.com/?page_id=874

The South Carolina Review: https://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/press/journals-annuals/south-carolina-review/

Okay, if you’re desperate to read this story, send me a sweet email and I’ll send you a file: lesliepietrzyk AT gmail DOT com

REVERSING THE RIVER: Serialized Novel Available

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my historical novel is being serialized this summer. REVERSING THE RIVER is set in Chicago, on the first day of 1900, when the city is completing a major engineering feat to reverse the flow of the Chicago River so the sewage moves downstream instead of into the city’s drinking water.

There are only a few more chapters to go, so now is a good time to jump in and get caught up.

You can find REVERSING THE RIVER on Medium: https://medium.com/s/reversing-the-river  There’s a small fee to register for Medium, which is LESS than the cost of a book AND gives you access to all of Medium’s great content. There’s also an audio file.

OR

You can download the Great Jones Street literary app on your phone/iPad; look it up in the Apple Store/Play Store.

Here’s a link to excerpt and more information: http://writingpolishdiaspora.blogspot.com/2017/09/reversing-river-by-leslie-pietrzyk.html

COVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's the new cover for SILVER GIRL, which will be out in February 2018. I am THRILLED!

My Online Novel, Serialized!

https://medium.com/s/reversing-the-river

Here’s where you can access REVERSING THE RIVER, my historical novel set on one day in Chicago at the turn of the (previous) century, when the citizens of Chicago completed their massive engineering project to literally reverse the flow of the Chicago River to ensure safe drinking water.

We meet Jozef, a Polish immigrant who is struggling to care for his newborn son and understand his complex relationship with love and family, and Lucy, an affluent young woman who is learning the secrets behind her recent, hasty marriage. How will the course of their lives be reversed on this momentous day?

So…I’m not sure if you can go directly to that link or if you’ll have to sign up for Medium first (do it! It’s a cool site!). You can also download the Great Jones Street literary app and look me up by name (that’s ZYK, not yzk!).

New chapters will be released weekly…or so I hear!

If you try this, and it works—or doesn’t—or you have questions/problems—please let me know. I’m just as curious as you are about how this all will work out! The one thing I know is that it’s a darn good book, and I’m very proud of it.

Link: https://medium.com/s/reversing-the-river

Happy News!

The happiest news, really: I’m thrilled to report that my next novel, SILVER GIRL, is going to be published by Unnamed Press, a fabulous small press based in L.A.  It seems entirely possible that the novel will be out in the winter of 2018!!

In a fortuitous turn of events that indicates that this pairing absolutely has to be destiny, I actually conducted an interview with Unnamed Press in 2014, so you can read how fabulous they are right here: http://www.workinprogressinprogress.com/2014/04/favorite-small-presses-unnamed-press.html

I’m working on my “elevator speech” about the book, but here’s an attempt: Set in the 80s, SILVER GIRL is about a destructive friendship between two girls from very different backgrounds who end up at a fancy college in the Chicago area…set against a backdrop of the Tylenol murders, when someone stuffed cyanide into Tylenol capsules and returned them to the drugstore shelves (which one could do because this was before product packaging was sealed; actually, this is WHY intense product packaging came about).

Here’s the opening:

            My roommate arrived first, staking her claim. Probably someone told her do it that way, her cum laude mother or Ivy League dad or an older sibling or cousin in college. I had no one telling me anything. So I didn’t know to take the overnight bus to Chicago from Iowa instead of the one arriving late in the afternoon, meaning when I unlocked the dorm room door I saw a fluffy comforter with bright poppies already arranged on the bed along the wall with the window, cracked open to grab the only breeze. Several dozen white plastic hangers holding blazers and skirts and blouses filled the closet with the door where F.U. wasn’t gouged into the wood.

            I rubbed my fingers along the grooves of those letters, imagining a deeply angry freshman girl digging a nail file from the clutter of her purse, carving those letters into the wood while at the library her roommate wrote a smart paper about Jane Austen or blew her boyfriend in a car parked by the lake or spray-painted acorns lustrous gold for table centerpieces at a sorority mother-daughter tea. I hoped my roommate wouldn’t be that angry girl.

            Also, I hoped I wouldn’t be.

 Here are two chapters that appeared online, in slightly different form:

~~~“Headache,” in WIPS/Works (of Fiction) in Progress Journal: http://www.wipsjournal.com/leslie-pietrzyk-headache-a-chapter-excerpt-from-the-novel-silver-girl/

~~~“Shadow Daughter,” in The Hudson Review: http://hudsonreview.com/2017/01/shadow-daughter/#.WUmdTWjytPY

So much to do to bring a book into the world…and please, please do let me know if there’s a reading series or bookstore or party at your house that you think I should know about! I’d love to do a reading and see YOU there!

Flash Fiction in The Collagist!

So thrilled to see one of my new pieces of flash fiction up in the June edition of The Collagist: “What We Know of the Animal” was written in my prompt writing group, and revised later, of course.

The two prompt words were “dating” and “curtain,” and here’s where to read the result (which will take you about three minutes, tops):  http://thecollagist.com/the-collagist/2017/5/19/what-we-know-of-the-animal.html

Here’s the first paragraph, in case you need more information before committing to that three minutes:

"No one says dating anymore." Thirteen-year-old Stephanie is always proud when she's able to correct an adult, especially her father, who's barely listening. To be honest, he barely listens to most conversations, so she shouldn't feel particularly special or at all dissed, though whenever she's with him, she feels both. He's gifted with the politician's ability to sustain lengthy, complicated, even heartfelt conversations while barely listening; questions, answers, words are an empty flow, like the whooshing sound spiraling through a seashell.

New Essay on "Widow Confidential"

I’m very pleased to have a personal essay posted on a new site, Widow Confidential, designed to help widows navigate the journey of grieving after losing their spouse. My piece is about figuring out where to bury my husband after he died young and unexpectedly. (Which reminds me: do your loved ones know your after-life wishes…and are they written down?)

Here’s the opening:

My first husband died of a heart attack when he was 37. With an unexpected death, often no plans are in place: no will, no list of songs for the funeral, no cemetery plots pre-purchased. Making arrangements is not scrambling for paperwork tucked in the back of the drawer with the bank statements. There are loose ends and hard decisions to resolve during this time of emotional crisis.          All I had to go on was remembered casual conversation about after-death options we’d had during ten years of marriage….

Here’s the link: https://www.widowconfidential.com/single-post/2017/04/19/What-He-Wanted

(People sometimes ask me if I left things out of THIS ANGEL ON MY CHEST. I didn't necessarily leave this out--but I decided I couldn't write about this incident fictionally, so I guess that's a different form of "leaving out.")

Flash Fiction!

I’m going to be the guest editor at SmokeLong Quarterly next week (4/10 ~ 4/16), which means that I’ll be reviewing all the flash fiction that’s submitted during the week and selecting my favorite for publication and an author interview.

The online journal SmokeLong Quarterly (http://www.smokelong.com/) is one of the premiere publications for flash, which they define as up to 1000 words. Because I’ll be reading blind, even if you know me, you’re free to submit your work. (Or you can submit your work any old time, of course…it doesn’t have to be for ME! Plus, the editors review all the work, so it’s possible your story may not catch my eye, but that it’s exactly what someone else is intrigued by.) 

And, I always like to promote a journal that allows FEE-FREE submissions.

Here are some thoughts the editors offer in the submission guidelines, which really end up being a pretty good primer on what makes good flash fiction:

The SLQ aesthetic remains an ever-changing, ever-elusive set of principles, but it most likely has to do with these kinds of things:

• language that surprises

• narratives that strive toward something other than a final punch line or twist

• pieces that add up to something, oftentimes (but not necessarily always) meaning or emotional resonance

• honest work that feels as if it has far more purpose than a writer wanting to write a story

We have a special place in our hearts, more often than not, for narratives we haven’t seen before. For the more familiar stories—such as relationship break-ups, bar scenarios, terminal illnesses—we tend to need something original and urgent in the writer’s presentation.

Here’s where to go:

~For more information: http://www.smokelong.com/

~To submit: https://smokelong.submittable.com/Submit

~To read some of my personal favorites from Smokelong:

 “Txaj: A Prayer” by Jeanne Jones ~ http://www.smokelong.com/txaj-a-prayer/

“Straight Lines” by Ryan Werner ~ http://www.smokelong.com/straight-lines/

“Gram Pouts with Duck Lips” by Allison Pinkerton ~ http://www.smokelong.com/grams-pouts-with-duck-lips/