Two by Two by Two
Available today in Heartlines Spec!
Available Today
Enid was four years her elder and so close to marrying the dead. She never once seemed like she didn’t wish to be a witch. She loved magic, patiently helping the younger Manon learn the ways of the dead, the ways of the living, the ways of the undead, the ways of the unliving. There was so much weft to all the definitions that Manon had trouble keeping them straight.
“The secret is: you can’t,” Enid informed her when Manon was nearly in tears over it. Enid’s bright green eyes twinkled kindly in a way that soothed Manon whenever she felt particularly stupid. “Straightness is overrated anyway. Life is full of magic, and magic defies rigid definition.”
This story poured out of me.
When one of my favorite bands (The Decemberists) drops an album for the first time in a million years (ok fine six), it was all I could listen to for about two weeks. As far as “writing inspirations” go, The Decemberists rank high on the list for their evocative imagery, the story work they do in their songs, and the way they can make absolute bops out of some truly twisted things. On this album, the song “Long White Veil” was the song that grabbed my throat. “I married her, I carried her, on the very same day I buried her” just clung to my brain. “I love this song” turned into a “how would I capture this song” turned into lying on my floor while a story about marrying, carrying, and burying someone arrived on my computer.
I couldn’t be more delighted to have found a home for Enid and Manon in Heartlines Spec, and I’m so grateful to Rebecca and Emily for the thoughtful refinements they suggested to make it what it is today! The magazine itself can be purchased digitally on Kobo and Smashwords, as well as digitally or in print via Amazon. It will remain behind a paywall for the next month, at which point Heartlines will be posting it to their website to read for free!
What I’ve Been Up To
Mostly been lost in the sauce on a novel I’ve been drafting for the last year and a half, and which has occupied my brain longer than any other book I’ve written. It’s been far more of a bear than I thought it would be when I started working on it. I love it; lessons have been learned; I’m proud of it and myself.
Q4 in my job is all-consuming so I’ve been working on shorter things when not lying on the floor playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Short stories, a novella, a piece of fanfiction. I gave myself a goal this summer that was “finish a short story every month for the remainder of the year.” I’m on track with that! I’m shopping some things around, but who knows if or when they’ll find homes. You’ll know if they do!
Congrats on the publication! Also, I love the "short story a month" goal. I may steal it :)