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.
