My contest winning submission: Big Trees
This short story is one I entered in “Wish You Were Here,” a Redwood Writers contest about travel experiences. And guess what. I won first place! Read it here.
teenagers
Writing like an awkward 13-year-old
When I wrote A Symphony of Cicadas, it wasn’t too hard to tell the story from Rachel’s point of view. She was a mid-30s single mother of a 13-year-old boy, preparing for her wedding. I am a mid-30s mom of a 13-year-old boy, and was preparing for my own wedding as I wrote the story …
Do 13 year olds blog?
When I was 13, I used an actual paper diary. I have a bunch of old journals in my boxes from way back when, chronicling those awkward teenage years. But now? There are a ton of online alternatives for teenagers to record their innermost thoughts and feelings. This is something I had to mull over …
He’s leaving home…
“Damn it, Sam! You don’t have a lock because then I’d never see you! Why can’t you just do what I tell you to do?” John shouted. I could see the sparks in the air as Sam broke, something snapping inside of him after months of walls upon walls being built up between them. “Because …
A stone’s throw of hurts
I left John alone in the apartment and found Sam huddled in the poor lighting of a pier a dozen blocks from the apartment. He sat at the edge, tossing tiny rocks one by one into the still water below. They lay gathered in a pile near his crossed legs, collected on his walk towards …
Step-teenagers and the silent treatment
It was the game he played whenever John acted as someone with more authority than a roommate who fed Sam and paid all the bills. Instead of fighting his father, Sam would just keep his mouth shut and react as if no one were speaking to him at all. “I don’t think he can hear …