My Writing

“Bodyguard’s Garden” in Kestrel: A Journal of Literature & Art.
Opening: When you first realize that you are about to receive an emotional or physical shock, you most likely experience a short period of numbness, less than a second long, during which the anticipated trauma may or may not occur.

“Venom” in The McNeese Review.
Opening: The boy had run behind the dumpster and into the strip of woods between the drainage canal and the street.

“Fire Hazard” in Random Sample Review .
Opening: Jesse had found a ball of twine next to the dumpster, and he and Frankie were using it to tie the Christmas trees to each other, bottom to tip, in a ring around the top of the dirt pile.

“Good and Wrong” in the Queen’s Quarterly.
Opening: In this little town, with its stunted mountain on one side and its gaping valley on the other, I’ve noticed odd patterns in speech—strange, almost unnoticeable imbalances in emphasis.

“Stones That Float” in Cottonwood.
Opening: In the week before and the two days after Michael left, his mother, almost praying, invested herself in six words: ropes steel spikes three other boys.

“The Locked Room” in Identity Theory.
Opening: The woman who worked at the coffee shop opened the bathroom door and caught Louis sitting on the toilet, his cell phone in his hand.

“Sweet Boy Looking Out” in Chaotic Merge.
Opening: To avoid the caterpillar street and keep the dog happy, they turned toward the bayou.

“Twins” in Red Rock Review.
Opening: Martin and Ellen sat on the two examination tables, facing each other.

“Burial” in Remington Review.
Opening: His babysitter Angela was still inside when Reggie found his dog at the end of the driveway, his black lab Belle, on her side next to the road.

“Shanghai D” in Two Hawks Quarterly.
Opening: Thank God, Mark thought, thank fucking God that he and Chris had fought about how he never wanted to do anything anymore, and that he had been pissed off enough at the oft-repeated criticism to decide to be an asshole about the whole thing: to leave Chris in the bar and drive off alone in their old Chevy Nova…

“Gap Year” in The Bookends Review.
Opening: Rita reminded Irving of the female leads in the after-school movies he had watched fifteen years before…

“Chimera” in The Frogmore Papers.
Opening: The man stood bolt upright next to the bar, instead of leaning against it.

“Lighten” in Sangam Literary Magazine.
Opening: Once, Maria had gone through her day yearning to rush home to Denise and her crazylady hair.

“Quay” in Ghost City Review.
Opening: Cliff, squinting through his dripping sweat, found that he couldn’t speak to the man in the ticket booth; he stumbled ahead, leaving Bill and Alex to handle the money.

“Refuge” in Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies.
Opening: Roberta scraped her chair across the boards of the tiny back porch off the kitchen, moving closer to her coffee cup on the table.

“Wandering Men” in Bone Parade.
Opening: The interrogator paused outside the door, looking down the hall at something or someone…

“Revenant” in MORIA, Issue 11.
Opening: Now and then a fine flake of gravel rose to Clayton’s scalp, a feather’s edge below the skin’s surface.

“Box and Thorn” in the “Surface Tension” issue of Neuro Magazine (Number 4).
Opening: Elizeus Mans gave up on the paraphernalia…

“The First One” in Dunes Review.
Opening: The doctor had told Sam to use a cane while his ankle healed, but he felt self-conscious…

“Real Name” in Saranac Review.
Opening: There were no oars in the rowboat, so they took turns pushing it.

“Eight Hours” in Litro.
Opening: When Matthew woke, he was curled on his side in the back seat of his car…

“River House” in Soundings East, Volume 41.
Opening: Weaving vaguely across the midline of the river, boats of various sizes clove the water…

“Already Done” in seems 52.
Opening: “Get this,” Greg said, folding the newspaper into one slim strip.