Last spring I was thinking about space and time and what math is and what language is and it came out of me in this flash story called “Dissociated Matter,” which you can read in Issue No. 10, Autumn 2023 of the exceptionally edited Exacting Clam from Sagging Meniscus Press.
And if you’re hard up and can’t buy an issue, don’t tell anyone but you can read it online too.
Love ya’ll.
LJ
This story might be one of my favorites I’ve ever written. Came out of me during the pandemic when I was sitting with big thoughts about the future and reading W.G. Sebald and my spouse and I would pass the time taking long drives down to the port and back home.
Los Angeles is known for its film studios and Hollywood glamour and media production, but one of the largest drivers of the economy is actually the Port of Los Angeles, which straddles San Pedro and Long Beach, and is the largest port in North America. It has 25 cargo terminals spread across 7,500 acres and handles over $270 billion in cargo a year. It is also a port of call for multiple cruise ships.
This story is partially about my fascination with the port, partially about my frustration with what I have seen some peers do to fit in, beat back loneliness, and lose a part of themselves along the way.
Malarkey Books published Hellarkey, just in time for Halloween (as a fundraiser for the press), and it sold out in mere hours. But even if you missed the chance to get your own copy, you can now read my story online!!!
A happy samhain to you and yours,
LJ
I don’t always write about football, but when I do, I also write about the marching band.
Here’s a new little love story hot off the presses.
I posted it on social media last week – but forgot to update my site! Those who know me from way back when might recognize some details from my own life. Back in 1998, I was the smallest sousaphone player at Lassiter High School when we won the Bands of America National Championships. This story isn’t about that, but it is about young love, and growing up, and how sometimes what we are isn’t what we always will be.
Hope you like it.
LJ
It’s 2022, and everything is chaos, but we’re surviving (some of us, yes?). Some of us.
Some of us have been surviving a long time, though, haven’t we?
Read my new story here.
xo,
LJ
My new short story, TRIANGLES ARE NOT CIRCLES, is out now from Exacting Clam. I was flabbergasted when I received this issue and saw the names on the back — incredible to be in the company of so many writers whose work I have savored and been inspired by over the years.
The first draft of this story came out of me almost six years ago, but, like many of the stories I write, it took me a long time to both hone it into the shape I wanted and build up the confidence I needed to send it out into the world.
Stew time in the creative process is undervalued and under reported. It’s a part of the genesis of a thing, and the development of it. Too often I become critical of myself for not being able to get something done in a rush, when the fact is (a lesson I learn over and over, even in regards to simple household tasks), there is a beauty in letting our efforts accumulate, in trusting that being still with an idea, or project, is also part of the doing, and that any creative endeavor we pursue to its end will have a value of its own (whether it is ever witnessed by someone else or not).
Thank you for being one of my witnesses. You can buy this issue and read the whole story (along with some other fabulous essays and poetry and stories) here.
xo,
LJ