Grateful to have won 3rd place in the FreeFall Literary Magazine Prose contest, and to be winner of the Lynn Fraser Memorial Award. I wanted to talk about the stories a little. Really hope you get to read them, as they’re quite different.

“Still Me, Still You” won third place (shared third place winner) and is about men. I’m a man. And men go through some peculiarities physiologically, as it were. I’m not saying I’m going through those peculiarities but things happen along the course of a life that perhaps require application of humour in this context. This is sort of a funny story. There’s nothing cosmic or speculative about it. It’s just about a man and a woman and their kids, that’s all. You might consider it to be conventional, rather than the genre-bending/breaking stuff I write at times.

It does break a few short story ‘rules’, though. Especially the one where short stories in the 3,000-word range should really be organized around a brief passage of time. That’s sort of a ‘rule’ that we hear about now and then, right? I didn’t want to obey it, so I didn’t, and the ride lasts a few decades. There’s also some sex in this story, something I don’t portray very often, but I’ve heard sex is sort of key to baby-making, so it was pretty essential to the narrative. It’s a hopeful piece and I like that. We need hope and uplift, you know?

“The Rainbow” is, well, a bit cosmic. And shamelessly blasphemous. And fully literary and speculative simultaneously, a line that is very hard for me to balance at times, because I’m always tipping over one way or the other. There’s a holy turtle. There’s a terrorist in a place you would not expect a terrorist to be. And there’s a protagonist who’s engaged in an illicit love affair that really is beyond the pale. I’m rather hopeful this story doesn’t offend anyone. I didn’t write it to do so, but opinions may vary. It’s not the years, it’s the mileage (bonus points to anyone who knows what movie made that quote famous).

There is one particular character in this story that I’ve written about before. I’m not sure why this character manifests in my head in this way, but they’re strong in my thoughts and continue to permeate my consciousness. Also, this story is funny too (at least I think so). When did I get funny, and could it be the caffeine or the scotch? I will have to investigate. I sort of really want to continue this story and might do so in the future, although the direction of travel would be challenging. Come to think of it, I did just write a story where this character appears again, from a different angle… Honestly, I’m not sure where I’m going with this narrative, but it’s very energizing.

If you read these stories, I’d love to hear from you. They sort of bookend my range, from the literary to the hopelessly speculative. Makes me wonder what the middle ground is all about, and if I’m capable of landing there now and then. Having both these stories published simultaneously by the same publication makes me wonder about that.

Congratulations to all the prose and poetry winners! And thank you to FreeFall! I won second place and third place in last year’s contest, so they’ve published four of my stories in two years, and that’s just kind of amazing. When I think back to last year’s stories, they’re very different from the two this year. Not sure what that means! Anyway, grateful for the support and recognition, FreeFall! Wish I could be at the issue launch in mid-November to read, but alas, I won’t be in Alberta at the time.