One of my oldest stories

“The Messenger”

Many thanks to Michael Simms at Vox Populi for selecting this, one of my oldest stories, for republication. (To read the story, click the link above.) I’m pretty sure I started writing it in 1976, in one of those headlong panics the night before a paper or story is due. I would have been 16, and I recall clearly that my English teacher, Vincent D’Amico, had assigned us an exercise in which we were to focus on color and sound to set the mood. I was listening to Al Stewart singing “The Roads to Moscow,” and I saw snow. I heard wind.

I got an A on that story, and my mom saved it. That’s the only way I was able to resurrect it in grad school, many years later, after another of those “I have nothing to workshop” moments. I workshopped it pretty thoroughly and the rewrite came with good comments from my fellow writers in the workshop. I did a lot of research about the time period as it adjoined research I was doing about Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977). He’s a fascinating fellow. He had the brilliant mind of a chess master. He was a lepidopterist, and he really was a Russian nobleman in exile! He wrote nine novels in Russian while living in Germany when his family left Russia after the February Revolution in 1917.

In any case, today, right now, the Ukraine is being invaded by Russia. We are sick at heart that such a thing can happen at one politician’s whim. This story that I wrote is designed in no way to imply that I side with the protagonist, who was a Russian spy. I read a lot of history around that time. I looked at a lot of photos. My heart has always been with the Ukrainian people.

About the picture:

Cossack’s Herculean Strength and Epic Courage. Drawing from The War Illustrated. The caption reads:
One of the greatest feats of the war, a Cossack exploit in which eleven Germans were killed, is now the talk of Petrograd. A trooper of the 6th Don Cossack Regiment was engaged in an attack on a German transport column. Observing six Germans in a trench about to enfilade the Russian main body, he charged the position and spitted two with his lance, while the other four fled. These he chased and killed individually. Later five German riflemen attacked the Russians, and again Kirjanoff charged, disposing of three with his lance. The others fled to the wood, where the amazing Cossack dispatched them with his sword. November 1915. Stanley L. Wood (1866 – 1928). 

Interview with Jade & Wilnona

Jade & Wilnona, the ladies of And I Thought podcast

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jade & Wilnona, the “And I Thought” ladies last week.

Madville Publishing Logo. The logo is kind of cinematic with an over-sized V in the middle of Madville, and Publishing in tiny all caps beneath
The interview is about Madville Publishing, where I am the director. You can learn more about Madville Publishing at https://madvillepublishing.com.

Jade & Wilnona are two multi-talented ladies who really know what’s going on in the publishing world right now. I pulled this introduction from their website:

The Ladies of And I Thought [are] an award winning group of authors of  “literary life guides with w/ pop poetry” aka our books And I Thought series & Miss-Fit Guides. The founders of The 25 Hottest Indie Authors, Artists, And Advocates Magazine & The And I Thought Literary Magazines. They are pop poets, speakers, radio hosts, and podcasters.

Website: www.andwethought.com, The Magazines: https://www.magcloud.com/user/jaded2555,
The Books: http://amzn.to/2yK1nJI, The Show: http://www.andwethought.com/show.html

Cheating Songs

A screen capture of my page on Vox Populi

I wrote Cheating Songs for an online workshop I participated in last year, lead by Siobhan Wright. That workshop has generated some of my best work to date. It was called Tell Us a Story. This is the third piece from that workshop to be published, and I’m continuing to work with Siobhan Wright, who has become a trusted friend and writing companion.
(The other two pieces that have been picked up from that workshop are “A Simple Twist of Fate,” published in Kestrel, Issue 43, September 1, 2020, and “The Contract Fulfilled” published by 50-Word Stories in March 2020.

Thanks to Michael Simms at Vox Populi for soliciting a story from me. Technically, “Cheating Songs” is an essay, but my father has always been a character in the stories I tell myself. He reads like fiction, because he was so unique. My mother was also an atypical sort of person, and when I write about either of them, their special quirks make it easy to tell compelling stories about them. I think of it as a story, and it’s one of quite a few I’ve written about my parents since both of them passed away in 2019. I hope to have a worthwhile collection of short essays and creative nonfiction pieces to share about them eventually.

The Magic Airplane

Child looking skyward from the cockpit of a white cardboard airplane

I originally wrote this flash fiction story, The Magic Airplane, for a contest with a prompt in 2018, I think. Dang if I can remember the prompt, but I know there was an airplane involved. There were other elements involved in the prompt as well, but I’m not sure what they were. In any case, it didn’t win the competition and it’s been edited a time or two since then. This is the first time it’s been published. Thank you to The Sad Girls Literary Book Club for giving it a home!

In this very short story, little Amelia is in a desperate rush to finish her airplane to activate the magic that will take her to her daddy, because “Her Daddy had promised her the airplane would fly and that she would be able to use it any time she liked to fly to him.”

Read it here: THE MAGIC AIRPLANE.

Screenwriting?

HEader for the Cinematic's Short Story ScreenCraft Competition

Cinematic short stories can lead to screenwriting

Screenwriting is not an area I’ve been brave enough to compete in before, but over the last few months, recognizing that I’ve been writing a lot more than I’ve been submitting, I tried submitting to this one on a lark. I feel vindicated in my writing that somebody read my story and thought it worthy of a little bit of recognition.

The story is an action-packed, humor-laced piece with a character named Nell who I based on the Sarah Connor of the Terminator II movie. She’s tough as nails and loves to drive. There are a couple of other memorable characters. I’ve written one other story about Nell, but she’s in my head every time I get behind the wheel and enter the death race that is I-35!

I first transposed Nell from a whisp of an idea, the elemental road warrior in my head, onto paper for a workshop with Christine Sneed in 2018.

My short story, “Trust Issues,” has made the quarter finals in a screenwriting contest! https://screencraft.org/2021/01/06/2020-2021-screencraft-cinematic-short-story-competition-quarterfinalists/

I’d love to give you a little taste of the story, but it’s wiser to wait and see if it can get any further in this particular competition first.

Taking Stock

I’m taking stock because I think maybe I’ve written more than I realized this year. I see all the literary newsletters featuring all the new writing people have been doing during the pandemic, and I think, Oh, I need to be doing more writing. But wait a minute. I have been writing. What I haven’t been doing is submitting much of my work. Even so, I’ve had two pieces published. I’ve been lamenting the fact that I spend so much time not writing, but I’ve been workshopping with several really great workshop leaders, and I’ve written for a few contests. So, how much have I actually written this year?

Before I give you the list, I should also add that I’ve compiled my mother’s writing into a memoir. (I won’t tell you about the 13 books I’ve produced for other people through Madville Publishing–with the help of Jacqui Davis and a whole team of editors. Let’s call that my day job.)

What have I written in 2020?

Edit: I completed this list and count 35 new pieces… Only two published to date, but lots of halfway decent material to mold and polish.

Workshops & Contests:

  • Tell Us a Story—with Siobhan Wright (January—May)
    • James, Maybe
    • Whatever became of Mr. J.?
    • Masks
    • Skydiving
    • A Tiny Spur
    • Incident at the Lightning M
    • A Grey Horse with Spots and a Flax Mane and Tail (file name Truth)
    • Memories in the Packing Materials
    • Sleeping Sickness
    • Final Acts
    • Becoming
    • The Detective
    • Prepubescent Only Child Angst
    • Becoming Nobody
    • Stage Fright (in 53 words)
  • Writers Weekly 24-Hour Contest, but not submitted (April)
    • The Eye of the Beholder
  • Jen Knox through Gemini Ink (July)
    • The Cowgirl and the Pilot
  • Jodi Angel Workshops (August-January ’21)
    • The Cistern
    • Agents of Change (for THE LIBRARY)
    • Blastoff—Touchdown
    • Floating Wellie Boots
    • Long Time No See
    • DNA and Dogs
    • Nanny’s Stories
    • Playear (novel for NaNoWriMo—working title)
    • The Possum Run
    • Why Did We Even Leave Florida
    • Just Like Young Goodman Brown

Three Publications in a Week

It’s a rare week to receive printed proof that someone thought enough of it to include it next to other people’s work they thought enough of to publish in a journal. So I was triply delighted this week when not one, but three publications I’ve been waiting for appeared in my mailbox.

They are:

A book review I wrote in the JASAT, November 2019, Volume 50
(The book under review was called Garden Variety by John Hoenig–about tomatoes…)

Flare: The Flagler Review published short creative nonfiction piece I wrote featuring genuine childhood memories in their Spring 2020 issue. Not all of it is exactly true.

Kestrel published a story I wrote about a mishap at a porta-potty in their fall 2020 issue.

A Simple Twist of Fate

A row of porta-potties sets the scene for Kimberly Parish Davis' short story, "A Simple Twist of Fate"

“A Simple Twist of Fate” is going to appear in Kestrel!

“A Simple Twist of Fate” is my latest short story, and it has just been accepted for publication by Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art. It will be included in Issue 43, which will be out by September 1 at the latest the editors tell me.

I love this story. It is set at the opening night fete at a modern day Renaissance festival, with the protagonist experiencing difficulties in the porta-potty. I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoilers.

Workshops Work

I need to give a shout out to Siobhan Write and her Tell Us a Story workshop. This story originated there, and I know for certain without Siobhan’s encouragement, it would never have seen the light of day. Siobhan brings some sort of intuitive magic to her online workshops, guiding and suggesting subtle improvements to make short fiction and very short fiction sing, and more importantly, find the ideal publication homes. Siobhan also helped me find a home for a 50-word story that originated in this workshop.

I’m not going to say that every workshop group works for everybody. It takes some experimentation to find the right group. Timing is important as well. I started writing with this group on the cusp of the Covid-19 pandemic, so I have had more time to write than I did before. Still, something has clicked. Having a group of fellow writers to tell you what isn’t working is an enormous help. Having a group leader who actually leads, thinking ahead with you to where the story you’ve been working on might fit is HUGE. Thank you, Siobhan!

Micro-fiction 50-Word Story

Pat and Princess

Writing micro-fiction is an act of puzzle making.

Micro-fiction is a style I have been uncertain about trying, so this publication came as a total surprise. I wrote this 50-word story last week at the prompting of Siobhan Wright who has been running an online writers workshop at TellUsAStory.org. The culmination of this particular prompt suggested we submit our 50-word stories to FiftyWordStories.com. And that is what I did. I really didn’t expect it to be accepted so quickly, or to be accepted at all.

So, without further ado, here is the link to my story, “The Contract Fulfilled.

 

Note: Those who know Princess need not worry. She’s fine!

A Clip from The Conch Shell 1979

An Article I wrote in 1979, “Preserving the Reefs”

I was going through some old newspaper clippings my mother saved and I came across this article I wrote way back in 1979 extolling the virtues of John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo, Florida.

An article clip from a piece Kim wrote back in 1979 when she was Kim Parish
You just never know what you’ll find in the archives. Like this article entitled “Preserving the Reefs” by Kim Parish of Ocean Divers. There’s no date on it, but I know it was from the fall of 1979. Key Largo underwater photographer, Stephen Frink had asked me to write it for him while I was renting a room in his house.