The Written Picture

Like Magic Waiting

I have a new story out today at TriQuarterly Magazine. I wrote Like Magic Waiting last spring after a late snow, long before the cicadas were singing in the trees or sunlight glimmered in the leaves. Long before anyone could be out in the tall grass of an open field searching for magic.

You can find a list of all of my publications here. Thank you for reading!

Writing Reminders

Here's a list I made up for myself years ago and add to every so often. I'd like to say that it's on a faded crinkly slip of paper tucked inside an old scratched up leather notebook that I pull out with trembling fingers. But it's not. It's just a document on my computer with an appendix on my phone. Not so much "rules" (do-this-or-else) as it is a simple reminder to myself about the stories I love, the stories I want to tell.

• Every story is a mystery
• Every story is a love story
• Every stand alone should trail off as if there's a sequel
• Every sequel should be a stand alone
• Every beginning is the end of something
• Every end is the beginning
• Every story should begin at an end with hopelessness and end at a beginning with hope
• Images should haunt
• The harder the moment the more beautiful it is. The most macabre scenes have the most breathless beauty
• Make it hard for everyone. Then harder.
• Leave everything unresolved until the last second. Explain at the last possible moment
• Every beginning of every chapter is the first line of a whole new world. Same with every last line.
• Images should have a beginning middle & end.
• Weave a silver thread of poetry thru every page. One gleaming strand.
• End on an important word that makes the whole thing feel like it's sinking down deep