Buy Words now from Wild Rose Press

 "Words" turned out to be one of those stories where you think you know what you want to write, but the characters absolutely refuse to listen.

This was supposed to be a light-hearted, almost comic story about a long-time married couple.  It has its roots in a dinner at our local Chinese restaurant.  My husband and I ordered our usual hot and sour soup, which seemed hotter and more sour than usual.  My eyes watered, and I asked my husband if my mascara was running.

"You're wearing mascara?" he said.

"Are we out of the house?" I answered. 

This from a man whom I've lived with for decades.  So, I began writing a story about a man standing in the bathroom doorway watching his wife apply her mascara.  Somewhere after the second paragraph, the story completely changed.  I think it might have been because I'd been reading "Fortune's Rocks" by Anita Shreve and hadn't quite shaken the formal turn-of-the century language.  "Words" is also written in present tense, and I HATE present tense. 

After I wrote it, I couldn't decide if it should be in 'his' or 'her' POV.  It was too short to switch in the middle, so I wrote it both ways.  I decided I liked it that way—one story told twice.  I actually had a contract offer from the now-defunct Arabella Romances magazine – but they went defunct before it was published.  It sat around my hard drive until I heard that The Wild Rose Press was accepting short stories for publication.  I submitted, they liked it, and it was their first contracted story.