Published Works
Novel
HOMEFRONTPrint Journals
"The Fittest"
2004__________
Red Weather Magazine "The Girl Next Door"
2006__________
Red Weather Magazine "This is How I Tell You"
They Do Exist!: Anthology of * "But for Gloria"
Award-Winning Short Stories
RE:AL, Summer/Fall Issue "To My Daughter"
Storyglossia Fiction Prize "They Three at Once Were
One"
Online Journals
2005__________
The Midtown Literary Review "In the Wheatfield"
Expository Magazine "The Nature of Things"
2006__________
Opium Magazine ** "Burn Everything but the
Heart"
--While Jenny had cried, while Kevin had raged, while Adolf had bargained, Deanna and Jim had passed glances across the circle. After one of their sessions just over a year ago, she’d stopped him outside.
"You are dying, aren't you?"
"Sure. You?"
"Yep."
"You want to get some coffee, or something?"--
--“And there’s a refrigerator by the bed, in case you’re thirsty,” the clerk said, taking a wad of bills from Benjamin.
“No, no. That won’t be necessary. We just want a place to rest. Isn’t that right?” He glanced at Elaine. “Just a place to rest.”
“Whatever you say.” The clerk evened the edges of the bills and then slid them under the plastic spring-loaded arms in the cash drawer. He hooked his finger in each change bowl, counting out forty-two cents. Between the dime and the nickel, he smiled at Elaine.
Elaine smiled back, then studied her hands when Benjamin turned to look at her.--
Storyglossia "Miss Neurosis"
--It's not like we live in a novel with Fabio glistening on the cover. It's not like he happened to crash-land on some farmstead owned by an old farmer and his beautiful, single, young daughter with long, blond hair and trim thighs and a lilting laugh that delights Dan to his core, the way the romance novels say it happens. It's not like she has heaving breasts.--
*** "They Three at Once Were One"
--Nan smelled—coming from his ACU's—dirt. Dust. The same desert odor that lifted off the pages she'd pulled from sweat-smudged envelopes, fine sand-grain coating her fingertips like chalk powder. She imagined his uniform against her cheek, his breath falling cool on the top of her head. His eyes were shaped like Marc's. The corners, or maybe the—
"Is that a no?" he said.
"Sorry?"
"I said, any good news?" He pointed at the TV.
Nan's face heated. "I—I don't—no. No." --Pindeldyboz "Serial Behavior"
--You tell me you can't stay much longer, you tell me for the second time this morning, lamb still on your breath, and I tug at a thread coming loose from a small hole in the knee of your faded jeans. Could I pull that thread and unravel you?
It breaks off in my hand and I let it fall.--
Right Hand Pointing "Seasonal Tourists"
--The first person they saw when they came to town was the girl behind the counter. Dying neon bulbs flicked and buzzed over her counter. Her hair hung dark and straight down her back. The men found her attractive and smiled at her and invited her to ski with them.
She handed them their keys and told them checkout was at noon. Now and then, her fingertips would brush theirs.--Edifice Wrecked **** "Becoming an Oates Girl"
--He left, he later sighed, because she was too perfect. (She didn’t argue the impossibility of being “too” perfect.) He flipped her hair, said, “Thick and bouncy!” He spat in her eyes. “They sparkle, for Christ’s sake!” But also, she was too optimistic, too chipper about “goddamn everything.”--
Story Garden 7 "Carol's Aquarium"
--"Hi, Brian," said Rick. "I was just talking to Carol, here, and I think we've come up with a plan."
"Your name is Brian," the fish said, looking at me. "Hm."
"What? What's wrong with Brian?" Goddamned fish.
"Oh. Well, nothing."
"And your name is Opal." This was getting out of hand.
"Hey, hey. Calm down, man." Rick turned to goddamned Opal. "He's never in a good mood in the morning. Brian, man, there's some coffee in the kitchen." To the fish again: "I knew I'd better make some. Did I call it, or what?"
The fish smiled at him. It might have winked. I took a breath so I couldn't talk and got some coffee. The fish passed by on its way through the kitchen and said something about wetting itself in the bathroom.--
"Mexican Blanket"
--Under the blanket and in low light they were Pippo and woman, poor and passionate and alive in the barrio, though they really had little idea what a barrio was.--
"Fate, or What Have You"
--Something about his slurping bothered me. And something about the way he shook his long bangs out of his eyes bothered me. The way his arm draped over my shoulder on the walk back to school for our midterm finals bothered me, too.--
2007__________
Denver Syntax "Visiting Hour"
She tucks her hair behind her ears and looks around. There are seven tables in all, half of them being used. I only know Kevin. The rest I don't talk to and they don't talk to me. "You scared, in here?"
"No way. This is fascinating. I've never been to a prison before." She leans across the table. "Is it like it is in the movies?" Her eyes are all big. She wants me to say yes.
Edifice Wrecked "Eating Eternity"
--The carpet was soft beneath her. She ran her palm over the fuzzy tufts, plucked a fiber clump and slid it under her tongue. Rough. She maneuvered it between her teeth and chewed it. "The carpet tastes like coat fur," she said. "Or pubic hair."
"Mm?" he said. "Ah."
"Kevin."
"Yes?"
"I'm serious."
"I know."--
Paperwall "For Rent"
--"Sylvia!" Her mother was somewhere. Backed into the kitchen, probably, eating a diet-sized bag of cookies. One hundred calorie packs were strewn all over. They were cheap, her mother said, and they kept you going. "Sylvia, you make sure you answer the door when he rings, you hear me?" --
Tryst3 "An Agate in Cool River"
--He flicked water toward her and she stood where she was, far enough away. "A year ago, we would have had more fun."
"The fish bite," she said.
He looked down at the water. "What, piranhas?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. But one of them got my toes." The way he stood there with his arms hanging down and the ripples bouncing over his knees, he could have been a little boy. For just a moment, she thought she might cry.
He ran across, splashing, and she stepped away, back toward the path. "Why the hell didn't you say something?" he said.--
"Trial Separation"
"The Start of Resentment"
2008__________
Six Sentences "Things You do for Love"
"Criminals Today"
Should Not be Unmentionable"
2000__________
High Plains Reader, 2000 "On the Road: Cassleton"
"On the Road: Downer"
"On the Road: Comstock"
"On the Road: Wolverton"
2007__________
Book Cover Express "Garamond"
Writers Weekly "Success is Relative"
Women's eNews "She Almost Lost Her Way on
Weight Loss"
"Married Without Children is the
Life for Her"
Overdue Karma "Tide is in..."
2008__________
Women's eNews "Innocent 'Kissing' Book Offers Date
Rape Tutorial"
Productions
Theatre of the Invisible Guest, 2000 "Girl on a Swing," One-Act
"Gun in the Corner," One-Act
Short Film, Fargo Film Festival, 2000 "The Fittest," Adaptation
Martin Jonason, Director
Dust Girl "The Thing is in the Forgetting"
____________________Awards/Prizes___________________
* Finalist, Scribes Valley Short Story Contest, Nov. 2005
** 1st Place, Voodoo Flash Fiction Competition, Jan. 2006
*** - 1st Place, Storyglossia Fiction Prize, Oct. 2006
- Pushcart Prize Nominee
- Million Writers Award list of notable stories, 2006
**** 1st Place, Edifice Wrecked Flash Fiction Competition, Oct. 2006
Other award(s):
Robert Carothers Distinguished Writers' Award, May 2000