The story is an excerpt of a larger work that’s struggling in the no man’s land between novella and novel at present, and the emotional hunger that Alan feels is played out more in that work of course.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Andrew Roe
   Checking in with Thrice Fiction
   Front Page: December

Not too long ago, my aunt walked into my house, wearing my mother’s old wig. She was proud to show me. My mother followed behind, smiling. It was one of those moments I’ll never forget. I felt overwhelmingly connected to that wig right then.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Marty Castleberg

Mirko is a young man filled with contradictions. He also frequently surprises his creator. In that opening scene he’s ill at ease. He’s throbbing with unpredictability.

Recently:
   Checking in with Occupy Earth
   Fictionaut Five: Neal Pollack

I have a bundle of written-on receipts and post-it notes in my pockets at any one time, covered in crayoned titles, snippets of description, and first lines that *might* go somewhere when I’m not running about with my 4 year old.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Ayelet Waldman
   Line Breaks: “Alteration” by Steve Almond
   Checking in with Shred the Safehouse

The micro “Three-handed Bridge” is adapted loosely from an unpublished novel of the same title.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Mark Wisniewski
   Checking in with Horrortap
   Front Page: October

The woman is at a crossroads. The person she wanted to seduce left with someone else. The party is a disappointment, a burden, and an obligation. I think of it as a fairytale – the two staircases are paths in her journey.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Ben Loory

It seems to me that story telling is a lost art. When I was a kid, I loved to be a mouse in the corner when my parents had friends over. They told stories. It was great fun. Now at a get together, it’s mostly chit-chat and gossip. I’m bored to tears.

Recently:
   Checking in with Lyrics in Search of Tunes
   Fictionaut Five: John Minichillo

The poem is set in a real place, on the beach outside a house owned by my nephew in Mexico. A whale washed up there some years before, and by the time I visited, it was simply great ivory rib bones rising from the sand. My children would play inside them, embraced by the skeletal remains.

Recently:
   Front Page: September
   Fictionaut Five: Anne Leigh Parrish
   Checking in with Like Birds Lit

Anything that happens to me in this life happens in a story for someone else.

Recently:
   Checking in with Zero Faves

I just recently earmarked a quote from Montgomery Clift: “If you look really close at things, you’ll forget you’re going to die.”

Recently:
   Checking in with Flash Party
   Fictionaut Five: Antonya Nelson
   Front Page: July