Tag Archives: Amy Souza

Grab Bag Day 2: SPARK

12 Sep

Well, I’m very sad as I write this. I’m participating in this round of my friend Amy Souza’s project SPARK, in which writers and artists inspire (spark) each other to create something new within a span of 10 days. I knew I’d be using my SPARK partner Rachel Morton’s art as my writing prompt for the day’s shorty, which is why I’m doing a grab bag of prompts this week. All good. But Rachel’s piece (pictured here) inspired by far the saddest story I have ever written—and I go dark easy, believe me. I think it’s a very good thing that I will be forced to create something new tomorrow and the next day and the next. It will prevent me from living too much with this character I (and Rachel) have created. He makes me weep.

Working Title: Welcome Home
1st Sentence: That expression he used to get on his face—when he was thinking back, we just knew he was, to those lost years.
Favorite Sentence: The boy held his breath and studied those boots, framed in the oval of rough fabric, so close he could see the exact shape of each ragged drop of red.
Word Length: 952

Photo by Rachel Morton of her work.

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With the Hypnotist “El Spirito”

5 May

When I was a kid I’d hear about hypnotists who traveled from city to city, putting on shows in front of huge audiences. Invariably someone would claim that the hypnotist called a member of the audience to the stage, put him under, and made him walk like a chicken for everyone’s amusement, clucking and flapping his arms like wings. Supposedly the chicken-walker never remembers the experience. Finally built a story on that very powerful (and very silly) image.

Working Title: Like the Chicken She Is
1st Sentence: You, there, the lady in the pale green….
Favorite Sentence: Disappearing into the cradling dark, the easy easy nothing.
Word Length: 877

Update: My friend Amy Souza came calling not long after I wrote this story, wondering if I could contribute a short fiction to her latest round of SPARK. “Like the Chicken She Is” served as the inspiration for the piece pictured above, “Vanishing Act” by Sandy Coleman, and for a piece by Amanda Brainerd (page down past the art and you’ll see the story in its entirety). Beautiful work, Ladies!

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