You named her: Rashida, after her father, in hopes that this would inspire him to linger. He said he liked the “Shhh!” in the middle: We’ll need that. You laughed, heartened. Maybe a namesake was all it took to tether him.
This laughter came before you knew that he was a spore adrift. Before, you’d felt [...]
Archive for the ‘Fiction’ Category
Shhh.
Posted in Fiction, tagged blackouts, drowning, flash fiction, mother-daughter relationships on October 21, 2009 | 6 Comments »
In Case You’re Wondering…
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts) on October 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I know I haven’t been posting new Maranatha chapters. It’s because I haven’t been writing new Maranatha chapters. And that’s because I don’t have any time.
But it’s also because it’s occurred to me, as I’ve gone back through and re-read a few segments, that Chapters 13 and 14 shouldn’t exist.
I definitely don’t think these two [...]
Maranatha: Chapter 15.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), tagged Christian private school, may-december romance on August 10, 2009 | 1 Comment »
- Chapter 15 -
“Tell me about your wife,” she said in the morning, with her head at the foot of the bed and her toes tapping out a rhythm on the wall above the headboard. Gideon flounced onto his left side and propped himself up on an elbow. Maranatha felt deliriously happy and childlike, and [...]
Maranatha: Chapter 14.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), tagged Faith, may-december romance, pentecostals on August 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
- Chapter 14 -
Maranatha had heard, years ago, that the Agees lived in a mansion. According to the inter-church gossip circuit, it was a gated twelve-acre estate high on a hill and surrounded with flowering trees that made their home invisible from the road. At Christmas, they hosted Gatsbyesque soirees, opening their house to other [...]
Maranatha: Chapter 13.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), tagged Christian private school, class action suit, may-december romance on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Part II
- Chapter 13 -
Law offices set Gideon’s teeth on edge—and with good reason. He envied the millions of people who got to live their whole lives with little to no contact with the justice system. They were lucky, traipsing joyously about, nursing benign delusions about the effectiveness of Law, and luckier still were those [...]
Maranatha: Chapter 12.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), tagged Christian private school, darkroom photography, may-december romance, teacher-student relationships on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
catch up with a visit to the archives.
- Chapter 12 -
It was glass, delicately blown from the breath they held, on each other’s approach. A paper-thin pane, their friendship: fragile and crystalline and spotless. But there it was: hanging in those spare, unnoticed moments when they glanced and looked away to grin to themselves [...]
Maranatha: Chapter 11.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), tagged Christian private school, class action suit, Faith, propaganda, public repentance, public shaming on July 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
get caught up with a visit to the archives.
- Chapter 11 -
The Law Offices of Cooper, Willis, and Dunn were in an office park near a shallow manmade lake. Shady elms encircled the lake and ducks flitted back and forth between the brackish water and the long grass. When Maranatha pulled into the labyrinthine parking [...]
Maranatha: Chapter 10.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), tagged Alzheimer's, armageddon, class action suit, emotionally detached parents, mark of the beast, the rapture on July 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »
turn to your neighbor and say, “visit the archives.”
- Chapter 10 -
In his dream, he was dead and meandering through an emptiness he assumed was heaven, in the absence of flame-melted flesh and the gnashing of teeth. Every minute, his chest swelled with a tidal wave of relief and gratitude. Every minute, that wave [...]
Maranatha: Weekend Weigh-In.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), Weekend Weigh-In, tagged online novel workshopping on July 25, 2009 | 9 Comments »
It’s been almost two weeks since I started working on Maranatha: A Novel.
Last Friday, I decided that I’d take weekends off. Initially, I thought I was doing this just to take a breather—and to allow any new or potential readers to catch up, so it wouldn’t seem like a constant barrage of overlong blog entries. [...]
Maranatha: Chapter 9.
Posted in Fiction, Maranatha (novel excerpts), tagged Christian private school, church controversy, DUI, may-december romance, pentecostals on July 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
to catch yourself up, get into the archives.
- Chapter 9 -
She was distracting. Did she realize how gracefully she walked, how squaring her shoulders once and for all would be all it took to make her formidable? Did she know how closely she resembled an editorial fashion spread with her angular movements, the abstract slope [...]
