On the heels of my own fiction publication earlier this week, I’m pleased also to celebrate and recommend two new flash pieces at SmokeLong Quarterly.
My wife, Tara Laskowski — the first time I’ve called her that in print! — continues her year as the Kathy Fish Fellow at SmokeLong with a story significantly different in style and approach from “The Hamster” (discussed here), her last piece for the journal. “A Minor Setback” draws on a fantastic element to explore the changing relationship between a man and his sister, both grown now and growing apart. In the same issue, Brandon Wicks — not only one of our best friends but also a groomsmen at our recent wedding — offers up a similarly surreal tale in “Northern Migration,” about a man slowly selling off his heritage bit by bit. Both pieces are provocative and, of course, highly recommended from these quarters. (Even without my own bias, I think you’ll agree that these are some fine stories.)
