“There was a girl who married a hammer. At first, it seemed like a pretty great idea. He was the strong and silent type. She found him on Craigslist, and he only cost her five bucks. She knew he was used, but she had a checkered past herself, one she didn’t want to talk about, so […]

My section of Lockjaw’s choose-your-own-adventure story is live today, along with new twists & turns from other awesome folks. You should really start from the beginning… but if you are just too uncool for ADVENTURE!!! then you can just skip right to mine here.

“She imagined him as a river swollen with rain, every rock a wonder. She imagined him eating frog legs by the light of fireflies, scraps of dull skin caught between his teeth. She wanted to catpaw behind him, all silent ripple and vegetal hush, and give him a concussion. She wanted to extract him like […]

“It didn’t matter to him what June wanted. That’s what he told himself. Calfskin boots, Mandarin oranges in syrup, fancy tobacco. But her teeth would rally to the twang of his shoulder, she would coo But Billy, and these gifts would appear in his hands, tasting sweet to his palms. She thanked him with heat […]

“I was wearing white lipstick when I pressed a kiss onto the dirty window in the back corner of his mother’s garage, pasting spider silk and bone-colored dust to the glass. I left that mark to be discovered at an unspecified moment. In the future. I left that mark, a ghostmark, for him to see. […]

“Onion skins make the broth a rich and golden brown. A good trick, a smart trick. Edie stashed them—like brittle old love notes—in a paper bag on top of the refrigerator and added them to the stock pot when she boiled chicken bones. Her mama taught her that. Simmer the bones until they give their […]

“It was so hot that the beers went warm in our bottles before we could drink them down. The long minute of silence between us stretched out across the rooftop, across the bruised black sky, while I felt the sweat surge from my pores and trickle down, spilling over each of my vertebrae like my […]

“They called us witches, but what did they know of it? We were Listeners, Lovers, Mothers speaking the mother tongue, speaking of rough linen and soap and all the fluids that compose a human child. We stanched little red rindles with creamy clusters of yarrow, bound bit fingers in plantain’s grooved leaves. We fed them […]

“Husband says you shouldn’t count your chicken before it’s hatched. And in fact, when folks begin to ask What are you hoping for? you find yourself replying A human. Husband prefers We’re hoping it’ll be Asian. Asian babies are really hip now. He also lets them know, in a confidential tone, that werewolf does run in […]

“She writes to me I don’t like it when you elaborate. Less is more. She sends me gap-toothed kisses on dark crickety winds. She calls me Tomato Pie, and my hands tremble like my grandfather’s did before his morning tumbler of whiskey and tap water…”   *** After the internet shitstorm regarding a very controversial […]