Footholds published in Litro online

Sometimes a story has seen several lives before it finds its way to publication.  That is the case with my story “Footholds,” published on January 16, 2018 by Litro as one of their #TuesdayTales.  The story has even had a few names, its working title the name of its main character, Amalia.  It was born as a three-page scene in my novel-in-progress, a dip into the lives of a family living in the village where my novel takes place.

They say you have to kill your darlings when you revise — and let’s face it, the art of writing is mostly revision — but in this case, I tossed it on the compost pile and gave it a second life.  From that scene arose this story, which carries within it the themes that obsess me.  Every writer has them — questions that they come back to, again and again.  My questions tend to be heavy ones — a dear friend says that I don’t do “light.”  But I do hope that this story has lightness to it — a light touch with these heavy questions. That’s what I turn to fiction for — the lightweight glider or sunbeam that connects a specific tale, a specific life, to the simmering mudpools and geysers of human experience.

I’m especially excited to be published in Litro.  Litro features such a rich array of international writing. I just contributed to their IndyGoGo campaign to fund new issues, focused on writing from Korea and India.  They have Latin America issue in the works, as well, which I have pre-ordered.  Their website has a beautiful design, presenting a lot of writing and images without a lot of clutter.  Check it out!