The gaffer blows his glass with ease and elegance. He stands before the red-hot furnace and dips his blowpipe into the molten sand. He swings the pipe up and out. He is nimble on his feet, balanced in his shoulders. He walks toward the block, swinging the pipe end over end. His intent face is … Continue reading The Gaffer
Author: Katie Baker
Saying Goodbye
The boxes stand packed in the entryway like little sentinels at the bottom of the stairs. A hush permeates the house, which is unusual for this house. No one screeches down the hall or thumps up the stairs. No echo of shattering glass trills from the kitchen. Olivia walks through the rooms one by one, … Continue reading Saying Goodbye
Book Review: Radium Girls by Kate Moore
🌟🌟 & 1/2 Recommend to history lovers. I've had my eye on this book for some time, and I was excited to start it, but the reality was a bit disappointing. The story recounts what happened to the female dial-painters who worked in factories painting luminous watch dials with radium-laced paint. It is a story … Continue reading Book Review: Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Maniacal Reader
Have you ever met someone who loves books and stories just as much, if not more, than you? You can always tell another literary fanatic by the way their eyes light up when they recommend a book to you. This isn't just an: "Oh, that's nice. You should check it out," kind of light in … Continue reading The Maniacal Reader
Reality v Entertainment
“You’re him, aren’t you?” asks the woman in the seat across from Daniel. A subway station zooms by outside the train windows. A flash of color and then black again. Daniel sinks lower in his seat and casts his glance toward the half dozen people littered through the empty car. The motion of the train … Continue reading Reality v Entertainment
Her Favorite Place
“Come here so I can lay my head on your shoulder.” Propped up in bed by a mountain of pillows, he rests his blue-lined, much-scared hand down on the comforter beside him. The other hand lies across his stomach, IV’s and plastic sprouting from it and running down the side of the bed. His wife … Continue reading Her Favorite Place
Book Review: Savage Country by Robert Olmstead
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Recommend to western lovers and lovers of stories with darker themes. Every once in a while I get a hankerin' to read a western. It's not my preferred genre, but I have enjoyed most of my forays into the literary wild west. This story follows a woman's quest to keep her land and home … Continue reading Book Review: Savage Country by Robert Olmstead
Everything and Nothing
The downy quilt of winter has returned. Front yards spill white toward the dark, wet slash of the street. Garlands festoon the front of my neighbors' houses. I've decorated for Christmas myself, and I find life settling into that familiar hectic holiday pace. When to write! The snatched moments come between car rides and family … Continue reading Everything and Nothing
Martian Boy
Robby unearths the small green stone from beneath a tough-packed hump of brown dirt in his backyard. When he brushes the mud from its uneven sides, it sparkles in the sun. “Alien stone,” he says, his eyes lighting up. He spends the afternoon cleaning the gem, wrapping it in wire, and suspending it from a … Continue reading Martian Boy
Holiday Madness
The holiday lines snake around the front of the store. People hesitate in confusion as to where to stand or where to go. The required six feet of space between people casts the queues into confusing tangles. Registers beep. Cart wheels whirr. Almost everyone looks at their toes or adjusts their masks. They scrunch their … Continue reading Holiday Madness
Seeking Prose 