Usually my process is thorny and angst-ridden, but I had so much fun writing this story. Maybe it comes back to my inspiration—the reckless energy of the music—or maybe it was imagining those kids speeding through the dark woods, both hunter and hunted. It was all adventure. (The characters would likely disagree.)
Read my whole interview about writing “The Barrens” at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction blog.
“The Barrens” is now online for members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. (Log in required.) Read here.
I’m over the moon (get it?) that my horror novelette “The Barrens” is the cover story for the May/June issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Five teenagers venture into New Jersey’s vast Pine Barrens, in search of the pirate radio station 81.9FM The Barrens and its elusive DJ. But, as in all good horror stories, they should be more worried about what might find them. (Purchase information below.)
A car cruises up State Route 206, alone under the flushed sky. It parks
beside the blackening pines, its doors wing open, and out step two teenagers. They’re suited to the land: dark jeans, black sweatshirts, skin and hair the shade of sand and soil. But their hearts are like the sky, fresh and pink. Flaming.
One holds a silver radio, first to her ear and then above her head. She turns in place, and so does her friend, intent on the compass in his hand. The calendar says spring, today, but still the nights are cold.
“Turn it up,” the boy, Brendan, says, and the girl, Tia, spins the dial a half-turn.
The music is like a fluttering ribbon in the air, thin but vibrant, and when it flares, the two stand in place. They’re facing the entrance to the woods, the beginning of Glass Forge Road.
They look at each other and smile. Perfect.
Look for copies in bookstores, including most Barnes & Nobles, or order online from the publisher. Electronic versions are available worldwide from Weightless Books, as well as from Amazon (US) and Amazon (UK). You can also add and review on Goodreads. SFWA members can read via the association website. (Log in required.)
I’m thrilled to see my story, “The Hermit,” in print in issue 4.1 of The Maine Review. Living in a decaying neighborhood, a young woman thinks her only hope of salvaging her inheritance–and the life she hoped for–is to sell her mother’s rowhouse to the company planning to demolish her city block. But when a religious hermit moves into the abandoned house next store and begins dispensing wisdom through the boarded windows, she realizes her loyalties are more complicated than she thought. Ultimately she must decide what kind of neighbor she truly wants to be, and what it means to call a place home.
I’m thrilled to have a story in Welcome to Dystopia (OR Books), edited by Gordon Van Gelder. My contribution, “The Elites,” set in a near future American dystopia, portrays a family struggling to stay together as the education, healthcare, and immigration systems are dismantled. Order here.