I write fiction as a hobby. A serious hobby–I’ve attended conferences and workshops, plowed through books of craft, and completed two 2-year certificates in creative writing from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago–but I’m at most an engaged amateur.
I regularly submit stories to magazines for publication, but it’s a slow process with fierce, professional competition. Some stories sell. Many get trunked. Of those in the trunk, there are still stories that I loved writing, I believe in, and that I love reading even a year or more later. Maybe others might too.
This page is my story trunk. Some of the stories have sold (even multiple times) to publications that aren’t freely readable online. Most have made the rounds among editors, but couldn’t make the cut. I’m putting the full text here so I can move on from trying to sell stories to writing new ones. To keep reminding myself that story writing started out as fun, and should remain so, without all the slow-motion drama of submissions and rejections.
Butterfly (Do You Remember Being the Worm?) (full text)
I twisted and pulled against the ropes holding me in the passenger’s seat while Davis turned his dad’s Oldsmobile down Dodge Street, earplugs and headphones in place, Walkman blasting.
Epilogue to a Lost Epic (full text)
Sajun still felt himself living out a tale, if no longer one that any would care to read. The last twenty years felt like a story told too long.
Scared of Bees (full text)
From behind the glass, Aryeh squinted to study the blur of their wings. He’d read bees challenged conventional understanding of winged flight. Bee wings created vortices. They rode tiny tornadoes.
Every Day Is a Miracle (full text)
The minister quoted Psalm 23:4, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” Make your faith bigger than your fear. Ain’t nobody’s faith that big.
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Raj Against The Machine 