"Boysenberry Jam" Published in Debut Issue of New Literary Magazine Eclectic Flash!

I am thrilled and honored to announce that my flash fiction story "Boysenberry Jam" has been published in the debut issue of the wonderful new lit magazine Eclectic Flash.

Here is the opening:

A place for everything, and everything in its place – though her rationale behind the placement of each item was a mystery to him. It all seemed haphazard, random. Cans of tomatoes and corn and peas stretched back into the darkness. Cereal boxes stood guard beside the Ritz crackers and hot chocolate mix. Tins of tea rattled beside plastic jars of peanut butter, store-bought, and glass jars of jam, personally canned. Some she had canned herself, others were gifts from friends. Raspberry, strawberry, boysenberry.

The pantry door squeaked slightly when opened. It sounded like an admonishment. After all, he wasn’ t hungry. But he stood there, in his threadbare socks and drawstring pants, staring at the life she had accumulated for them. No matter how angry she was at him, no matter how badly her third-grade class had behaved that day, no matter how many ragamuffin friends (or, later, ragamuffin boyfriends and girlfriends) the kids brought home with them after school to eat their food, she never complained. She always had the pantry stacked to overflowing, and she always had dinner ready on the table at 6:00 sharp, after Wheel of Fortune. They ate together, as a family, during Jeopardy. The volume muted, they guessed at the answers, shouting to blank-eyed TV contestants who never heard them.

He took a jar of jam off the shelf and studied the label. Boysenberry. For Ida Jean, With Love, Carlotta.


You can read the rest of the story -- as well as numerous other provoking, humorous, chilling, delightful fiction, nonfiction and poetry pieces -- at this link:

http://www.eclecticflash.com/files/VOL_1_JAN_2010.pdf

You can also order print copies of the journal here:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/eclectic-flash-volume-1-january-2010/8017577

Thank you to editor Brad Nelson for all the hard work he put into this
terrific first issue! And thanks for letting me be a part of it!