Giraffes, Worms, Ugly

I went to AWP last month and was really overwhelmed the whole time. Mostly I walked around with my old buddy Colin Winnette*. My face turned really red every time I snuck into the book fair. Working from home makes me pretty bad at making new friends, but I decided this month I'm going to try harder. Do you want to be my friend?

Print publications don't usually choose my work but surprise! I have two stories in magazines that are out right now.

My story, "Giraffe Land," is in the current issue of The Lifted Brow. If you order it, you will get mail from Australia. Here is an excerpt:

"A long time ago, I knew a giraffe. Even further back, giraffes ruled the land. Babely girls were second in command. They rode atop the giraffes, high above the city streets. This was the only time in history the rider was not in charge of what she was riding. The babe riding the giraffe was the passenger, and if the giraffe wanted to walk past a snarl of roses, then the babe on top had to draw her pretty legs up to avoid the thorns."

I met the editor of Juked, John, at AWP, and he was really nice. My story is called "Ugly Brown Car." When I was in high school, my best friend's dad gave him a car we called Ugly Brown Car. You could only drive it in a straight line or it died. Could that actually be true? I don't remember. The story itself is not based on real events:

"Bobby came home from work and told his sister, Beatrice, he’d like her to pitch in.
'Pitch in how?' she asked, sitting at the kitchen table and shucking onions from their peels.
Bobby told her she could get a job too, maybe at Jack’s Hot House. She could work days he said. Then they could pool their pennies and buy a car that wasn’t the ugly brown car. They’d had ugly brown car for what felt like forever and lately, forever had been feeling not so great to Bobby."



* If you go to Colin's blog, you'll see a picture of a cereal bowl. This always reminds me of a time I saw Colin spit out a spoonful of cereal because it was full of worms.