My Writing

Several years ago my little brother and I were walking to school after a pretty significant snow storm. While walking we passed a red pickup truck whose bed was overflowing with snow. Without warning I leaned toward him and said, “How many bodies do you think a person could hide beneath all that snow?” Some might be surprised, even a little frightened by such a comment, my little brother, however, didn’t even miss a beat and simply said, “At least ten, maybe more if they were dismembered.” He then followed it up with, “You’re going to write a story now aren’t you?” The answer was yes. I had no idea what the story would be about, I just had an image of a kid being pulled over in a red pickup truck full of snow, one which was full of dead bodies. Whether or not the kid had killed the people beneath the snow was unknown, but eventually while writing the tale I figured it out. I was a senior in high school at the time and a few weeks later, one I had finished the story and polished it up with a few rewrites I sent it to a magazine called Black Petals, one which had been rejecting my stories for over a year, but always with long explanations of why rather than simply sentences that began with Dear Writer, We are going to pass on your story. A few weeks later a letter arrived from Black Petals, one which I figured would be another rejection letter. Instead it was an acceptance letter, my first, one that finally made me realize I wasn’t wasting my time. Ten years later I still feel the same way even though I haven’t sold a novel and can barely make a living from my writing, the need to go get part time jobs always becoming a reality. One day I will sell a novel and I have a feeling that I won’t be expecting an acceptance letter when it arrives, either in the mail box or my email inbox, one that promises to have my book on store shelves within a year. Until then, enjoy the stores on the left. Many of them were published in small magazines, some weren’t. All of them, however, were fun to write, which is why I keep at it.

Some of my Short Fiction