Sunday after Thanksgiving is travel day for many Americans. For years it was for us until we decided to deconstruct holidays and jump off the mad, stressful, exhausting roller coaster ride of it all.
So for those of us sitting by the fire or under the A/C with our restful feet up enjoying leftovers (pie!) and beverages, I’m offering a few wonderfully written stories for your reading pleasure. Oh, and also for the frazzled and tired, if your eyes can focus. :)
Full Moon for a Dying Light by Julia Ruth Smith in The Molotov Cocktail. Such beautiful and tragic prose. Trains, graffiti, big city blues….all elevated to poetry, to opening eyes.
Dinner in the Afterlife by Andrew Bertaina in Rejection Letters. A trippy, dreamy alternate view of heaven. I loved this one.
The Devouring by Mugdhaa Ranade in Hex Literary. This tiny micro is so appropriate for the holidays. It makes you think differently about feasting and food.
Hey My Son by Anthony Neil Smith in Reckon Review. Every so often a piece of fiction will absolutely gobsmack me. This is one. I hesitated to include this story because I am an editor at Reckon and I prefer not to share favorites. But I had a visceral reaction to this so I’m making an exception. It’s a little long but, trust me, it’s so worth the time and it’s one you won’t soon forget.
Theft by Lucinda Kempe in Bending Genres. This is a non-fiction piece about the online theft of Lucinda’s literary work surrounding her father’s death. It’s devastating to read for anyone who writes, especially anyone who writes about family, trauma, and grief.
Most of these stories don’t have happy endings. But happy endings are sometimes not indicative of real life nor very interesting reading. All of these are extremely interesting to me as an observer of life - real, messy, entangled life. I hope you like them, too.
Floored by your thoughts on "Hey My Son." Many thanks.
Thank you for these wonderful stories, Charlotte.