Concord Writers’ Night Out 2018 ISBN 978-0-359-06311-6 90000 9 780359 063116 4 Concord Writers’ Night Out 2018 An Anthology of Writers and Writing in conjunction with the New Hampshire Writers’ Project edited with an introduction by Ian Rogers Concord Writers’ Night Out 2018 An Anthology of Writers and Writing in conjunction with the New Hampshire Writers’ Project The New Hampshire Writers’ Project (NHWP) supports the development of individual writers and encourages an audience for literature in our state. We are a nonprofit literary arts organization funded by our members as well as organizations and businesses that support our region’s writers and literary heritage. On the web at nhwritersproject.org On Facebook at facebook.com/nhwritersproject On Twitter at twitter.com/nhwritersproj Print ISBN: 978-0-359-06311-6 eBook ISBN: 978-0-359-06314-7 Cover photo: Cheryl Barnhart, “Many Glimmers Lead the Way,” taken at the National Gallery of Arts, Washington DC All pieces included in this anthology are copyright their respective creators/owners. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without permission of the respective creator/owner. The editors of this publication have done their best to present correct information and the information in this publication is presented in good faith; however, no guarantees are given, and the editors disclaim any liability for unwanted results. Table of Contents Introduction 1 A Few Notes 3 Stuck in Mud Claudia Altemus 5 from Dead Leave K. Dalton Barrett 13 Breathe Patricia S. Wild 23 Irish Dawn Patricia S. Wild 24 In the Garden Polly Ingraham 25 from Pantheon: A Novel of the Greek Gods Gary Devore 29 The Other Side Cheryl Barnhart 36 from Return to Kesan Stephen Pascucci 38 Nightfall Daniel Ellison 44 Kitchen Conversation Daniel Ellison 45 Welcome to the Meadows Daniel Ellison 46 Reflections Daniel Ellison 47 The Gravedigger’s Son Josh Bresslin 48 from In The Cards Angela D’Onofrio 64 Farmers and Actors Carole Soule 71 Only a Wyvern Pamela Hunt 73 Rejection Ian Rogers 81 A King’s Pine Thompson Parker 84 Thinking of You Jonathan Hall 100 The Steppes Jonathan Hall 101 Caged Bird Wendy Jensen 102 Awakenings Piper Tallis 104 Apartment 6B DJ Geribo 118 The Ghoul Job Nicholas James 121 Seashell Dreams Karen Pellicano 126 from I Have Nothing to Say, but I'm Going to Say It Anyway! Ken Skoby 129 Contributors 133 Acknowledgements 138 1 Introduction A few years back before I joined the New Hampshire Writers’ Project I belonged to a smaller writers’ group I’d organized with some friends. Like me, they wanted to share their writing, and the three of us met monthly at one of our kitchen tables for discussions sandwiched between dinner and a board game—usually Pandemic or The Settlers of Catan. The group not only allowed us to share and receive feedback, but it gave us all incentive to, you know, actually write. Our meetings were simple, fun, and unabashedly casual, which was why it surprised me when one of our members told a coworker that she belonged to a writers’ group and was met with the disinterested response, “Oh, that sounds like a wine and cheese thing.” I should probably clarify that the only cheese at our writer’s nights could be found in the occasional macaroni and cheese bake, and we never served any kind of alcohol out of respect to one of our members who didn’t drink (though if we did, it probably would have been something cheap). That anyone could have classified our throw-together kitchen-table meetings as something out of high society became a source of endless amusement, and we jokingly dubbed ourselves the Wine and Cheese Writers’ Group and began taking exaggerated sniffs from our ginger ale glasses. The link some people draw between writing and a higher social class mystified me then, though I now recognize it as indicative of a certain estrangement from the art itself. The coworker in question seemed to imagine books and writing as something far beyond her reach, an idle pastime of the rich belonging to a cartoonish world of stone-faced butlers and marble statues. Such associations stem from the same lack of familiarity we all experience with different aspects of the world around us: I, for instance, know almost nothing about quiltmaking, ballet, or skateboarding, and would be hard-pressed to make an accurate judgment about the hard work that goes into any of them. When we view activities like these from afar, we’re less likely to observe their many nuances and more likely to notice the types of 2 people who do them, and if we perceive the resulting social structure as alien, of course we’ll be prone to shy away from the activity itself. I have no doubt that some of the people who enjoy reading and writing are the same people who enjoy wine and cheese tastings— perhaps even at the same time!—but claiming that people who tout the importance of The Scarlett Letter are also reading Frank Herbert’s Dune, the latest David Sedaris collection, and pirate adventure romances from the ‘80s quickly becomes an exercise in absurdity. Despite all the links we draw between books, there exist as many kinds of writing in the world as there are people reading and creating it. Those of us from the Concord branch of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project come from a similar breadth of ages and walks of life, united only by our geographic location and desire to write. We work in fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, historical fiction, humor, horror, romance, and everything in between, and we come to learn from one another and share ideas about writing. Some of us are widely published while others are writing for the first time— though just by looking and listening you’d have a hard time telling who was who. Our meetings are a way to meet writers we’d otherwise never meet—and though there’s never any wine or cheese, a few months back someone brought a plastic tub of cookies to share. The idea for a Concord writer’s anthology emerged through our meetings as a way to share our widely different projects, not only with each other, but with the greater community who may not know who we are or what we’re working on. It’s only by reading—by engaging with the actual work itself—that we come to understand the writing world in all its varied styles and discover the work that most strongly resonates with our experience. This is the world we present in this collection: a world where everyone can find something to enjoy. Ian Rogers 3 A Few Notes All of the pieces in this collection were submitted by members of the Concord Writer’s Night Out group, a loosely defined monthly meet up organized by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project and coordinated by NHWP trustee Gary Devore. We meet at 7:00pm at the Concord Books-A-Million on the first Monday of every month, though if you’d like to drop by you might want to email first to make sure we’ll be there. See nhwritersproject.org/writers-night-out for more information. Authors retain all copyright to pieces included here. For excerpts from previously published works, a link to the longer work is included. A full list of contributor bios and contact info can be found at the end. 4 5 Stuck in Mud from The Water Rabbit CLAUDIA ALTEMUS Let me tell you a story. It happened long ago, but not so long ago that it has been forgotten, and far away, but not so far away that we can not still catch a glimpse of it from where we are. You may want to wrap your hands around a cup of something sweet and steaming, and sit yourself down in a favorite chair before I begin. If your chair resides in front of the hearth you are doubly lucky because it is always delightful to read in front of a fire, and because you will find it easier to imagine the scene I am about to describe. The fire that our hero, Marten Treadle, sat in front of burned inside a kiln loaded to capacity with clay jars, each one destined to hold its share of an overabundance of sunflower oil. In the meadow where he and the kiln sat, the blades of grass bent low with the weight of dew and the sky was beginning to turn that shade of murky gray that announces the inevitable coming of the dawn. There was no need to add more wood to the firebox; the kiln had already reached the desired temperature and was radiating tremendous heat. Back home in his family’s pottery, Marten had loved this part of the firing, when all the work was finished and there was nothing to do but sit back and wait for the kiln to cool down. Now, though, try as he might, Marten could not relax. The grand adventure he had started on so many weeks before had lost all its magic and certainly hadn’t brought him any. He was anxious, and angry, and sick and tired of everything that had to do with clay. He had not always felt this way; once clay had been a magical substance to him. His earliest memories were of his mother’s palms and fingers shaping, lifting, and transforming clay into beautiful and useful objects. He had been given his first lump of the magical mud when he was just a tiny boy to keep him entertained while his parents worked.