Come Selahway With Me…

I’m always excited to have my work out there, and today I received my copies of the winter 2012 issue of The MacGuffin. My story No
Place Like Home appears in this issue and is the story of a mother and daughter with very different personality types. Through a roundabout conversation they realize that this might not be just because Stephanie is a teenager. It might be because she has memories that go back even before she was born. Needless to say, her mother isn’t quite sure how to take that.

Relationships and dynamics between people admittedly fascinate me. I don’t think I’ve had a harder upbringing than anyone else, and in a lot of ways I’m luckier than most. I think stories like this just stem from my natural tendency to think ‘What if?’ What if I were to take a basic relationship that could be a powder keg anyway and add an element that really shakes things up? Will the people involved play nice because they’re related and they have to? Will they take their personal frustrations out on each other because they’re convinced the other person will never understand them? Will one or the other bottle up their real feelings to make the other person feel better because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do?

One of the hardest situations (and it doesn’t even have to be about anything really heavy) is when you disappoint a parent. It’s crushing as a child, and even when you have developed your own opinions and method for living your life it still hurts to have them not be in agreement with you. There’s nothing so hard to watch as the door in someone’s eyes swing close and lock and this is doubly so if it’s the eyes of a parent. And though I don’t have kids, I can imagine that it’s not any easier to see someone you’ve raised and cherished go off and do their own thing, knowing that you can’t always be there to help or save them. And if you suddenly catch them saying or doing something that’s totally against the way of life you’ve grown accustomed to, well…that can’t be easy.  And I like the concept and the possibility of reincarnation…plus it makes a convenient way to showcase all those nifty relationship dynamics that I’ve already discussed (hrm…maybe there’s a reason this one was a good fit for a publication called The MacGuffin!)

It’s those kind of thoughts that inspired my story and I’m so excited that The MacGuffin picked it up – and a little intimidated. While I regularly submit to literary journals I have become convinced that my purpose is to give them something to cross their eyes at. Admittedly I’ve cradled my copies lovingly to my chest and admired the cover all day, but I’m not ready to have a peek inside just yet.

If you want to check out The MacGuffin you can do so at this link!  If I find any more information about a direct purchase link I’ll add it to the Available Now section of my blog and mention it in a post.