Ah, the French; In Paris they name streets and erect statues to honor great short stories! I searched online and found a lovely translation to print for free. Also this week, I was honored to have two prose pieces published.  

• “The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls (Le Passe-Muraille)”, by Marcel Aymé, Translated by Karen Reshkin

 This tale written in the 1940s is as contemporary an observation today as it was in its time. Workplace politics and human behavior provide great grist for the mill of Aymé’s mind. We laugh at ourselves even as we cluck our tongues at Dutilleul—the stuff of classic comedy.

Writers, try this: Bestow one superhuman power on some unmotivated schmuck and see where it takes him. Quel amusant!

• “Snuff”, by Jodi Angel, One Story, Issue Number 179

The artful way Angel structures this story is a study in good storytelling. The author juxtaposes two coming of age scenarios—boys watching a snuff film and a brother and sister dealing with the aftermath of a car accident—to sustain the tension. As two teens grapple with the violence of human nature, innocence is snuffed.

• “The Tracks”, by Karen K. Ford, NarrativeMagazine.com

This award-winning short story illustrates that your motivation to follow a track of thought may get you where you are determined to go—in your mind or someone else’s—but it may not be the best destination. Good observations on childhood, like this one:

Childhood is the furthest thing from safe there is, and no parent has yet been born who can save a child from it.

• “Romaine Hearts”, by Lucy EM Black, Forge, issue 7.1

I chose this story for what it would reveal about the title. Sometimes a childhood memoir turns on that moment when we come to understand something offered to us outside our normal experience has a significance that elevates us.

• “Meet Your Maker”, by Sydney Avey, Every Writers Resource, July 1, 2013

EWS published my flash fiction on July 1.  In addition to providing resources for writers,  EWA publishes “A Short Story Everyday”. One of a series of Beanpunk Café stories scheduled to appear in several different publications over the next few months, I hope to publish them all as collection someday.

• “First Times“, by Sydney Avey, Forge, issue 7.1

Published July 2, this prose poem began life as a character study for the antagonist in a novel-in-progress. It is the back story of a man who both inspires and thwarts the life and work of my main character.

• “A Negative Number“, by Rochelle Germond, The Coachella Review

I would classify this as experimental fiction, an experiment that works. An anorexic girl counts her way through life and ends up hospitalized;  a gut-punching look at addictive behavior.