All short stories published on The Quick and the Dead are linked below. Happy reading!
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Osburga wasted no time with me. As soon as the offer to teach me bewitching left her lips, a powerful wind blew through my spirit. I gasped at its bite, the chill of it snaking along my limbs. But I held Osburga’s eyes until it passed. She seemed pleased with my tolerance and my stoicism.… Continue reading
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I peered through the bracken, staring at the smoke coming from the little cottage just deep enough into the woods that you couldn’t see it from the clearing. The mossy, rich smell of earth and wet leaves filled my nostrils as I crouched behind the fallen tree, mustering the courage to creep forward. I knew… Continue reading
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10/18/22 2:11 pm Hey sis. Did you talk to dad? Not today. Why? He ok? uh… well idk. What do you know about what’s going on with him and Bobby? His neighbor? The pharmacy guy? Yeah, him. Did you know they got into a fight? About what? Jessica Oh. That doesn’t sound good. I’ll call… Continue reading
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When he came, I knew he was different than the other healers. Legion was afraid, and he was never afraid. His fear covered me like a sheet, hiding for just a moment all the rationality I had left. But he retreated so far into his own fear that I suddenly was free of him, just… Continue reading
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You’re mine, Dositheus. I can’t get away from them. A multitude inside. Legion invites them and they come. Sometimes I don’t even hear myself screaming because the screaming inside me is so loud. I cut myself to remember that I am me. I wail to remember that I have a voice too. You will never… Continue reading
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“And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain, for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he… Continue reading
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I phoned Kathy Jo before I went to bed that night. We’d gotten that phone put in only about three years ago. Daddy always asked what we wanted it for, we could just talk to each other if we wanted to talk. But Momma had convinced him we needed it in case of emergencies, and… Continue reading
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The White Stone, a short story I published on The Quick and the Dead in 2022 has been lengthened into a novel, and is now live on Kickstarter. The campaign runs until October 31 at 6 pm EDT. If you enjoyed reading The White Stone and the companion stories published on this blog, I encourage… Continue reading
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You know when you get all fluttery in your stomach because you don’t know if you’re getting Christmas gifts or not, or you find out a secret that’s real juicy and you know you aren’t supposed to know it? That’s how I felt next day going up the road from our house to Andy McCaffree’s… Continue reading
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The next day it rained buckets and we girls were even more bored to tears than usual since we were stuck inside. I swept the canned goods aisle maybe 15 times in 30 mins just to give me something to do. Momma put Mary Sue to work scrubbing the walls of the bathroom. Me and… Continue reading
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