fiction
Fiction:
Music of a Family Man, a short story
What does North Carolina's future hold? Braz thinks his idyllic mountain home is all that matters. "Music of a Family Man" appears in the July 2010 issue of A FLY IN AMBER:
http://www.aflyinamber.net/?p=909
Merpeople, a short story
Belong Anthology, Ticonderoga Press 2010
Rolph suspects recently arrived aquatic aliens of having too many secrets. Soft-hearted Sheila disagrees, only one of the reasons he wants to ditch her.
Losing Paradise, a short story
Gwen Chappell Veazey is a native of North Carolina, USA. She lives in western NC with her husband and without her two post-college children, who insist they’re grown. Her articles and stories have appeared in The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte's Creative Loafing, Today’s American Woman, and other publications.
Contact:
gwen [at] gwenveazey.com
2008 in Killers AnthologyZombie Virginia has plenty of easy meals at the wretched 1930's mental hospital, but yearns for something more.
Bodychanger
www.rationalmagic.com (Click on archived stories)
I predicted the future in a small way with this 2001 story of a woman who exchanges brains with people to lose weight for them. Admittedly done for laughs, the story mentions “healthy” sodas, such as Calcium Coke and Reduced Sugar Pepsi with Fluoride. In 2007, I see on the shelves at Food Lion cans of Coke Plus, shot with vitamins and minerals!
Hello, Young Strangers
Accepted by Here and Now in 2003, but unpublished due to mag’s demise.
Stan plans to marry Laura, the woman of his dreams. Now all he has to do is meet her.
Beyond Worry Crossroads: Fort San Juan
Morganton News Herald, July 23, 2006, print edition only
Burke County, NC, holds secrets of a short-lived Spanish fort built beside a major Native American village in 1567, twenty years before the Lost Colony. The story speculates on why Fort San Juan was destroyed, and why one Spaniard escaped, later to marry a Native American woman from the village.
Before Golf Balls, Watermelons
Morganton News Herald, September 10, 2006, print edition only
The 1950’s lacked modern concern for rights of mental patients and enjoyed roads traffic-free enough for driving tractors between Broughton, one of NC’s four mental hospitals, and its leased property. The facility’s patients farmed a number of fields, including land on both sides of Highway 181 from the Catawba River to the radio station. This is a day-in-the-life story about Bobby, a hospital attendant who loses patient, Willie, while worrying about his marital troubles.
Google and the Second Coming
Morganton News Herald, August 19, 2007, print edition only
Two friends have lunch and discuss the news that trendy, tech giant Google is moving to L.A. (Lenoir Area, in Caldwell County, NC.)
Poetry:
The Vampire’s Husband
Aoife’s Kiss, June 2007
Inspired by one of my favorite authors and writing teachers, Bruce Boston.
NOTE: All of the above are/were paying publications except Rational Magic.