Friday, October 22, 2021

What the Water Brought

Publication news! My magical apocalyptic tale, "What the Water Brought" runs today at The Chamber Magazine.

The story follows three teens, running from the horrors of war, who stumble onto a little riverbend that flows outside of time. But their own private eternity comes with a catch. A choice. They must ask themselves: how long can we stay forever seventeen?

Read What the Water Brought at the Chamber Magazine.

And just because I love to pull the curtain back on these things, here's the opening sentence from my original draft of the story:

"We idled at the riverbend, skipping stones, skipping school, skipping time."

Its fine enough. Gives you a place. Some people. An action. But for comparison, here's the story's opening line as published in The Chamber Magazine:

"We were vampires at that riverbend, desperate to suck the blood from eternity."

The first is fine; the second is better (with an assist from Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, who just so happened to pop on to my playlist as I was editing the manuscript). Tonally, it fits much better with the rest of the story. It just goes to show that writing isn't in the writing: it's in the editing.

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