I’m thrilled! In January my story “Holes in Heaven” appeared in Isthmus, a lovely print magazine out of Seattle, Washington. As it turns out, The Review Review gave the issue a 5-star rating, including some real love for my story.
The review says in part, “Isthmus 4 is a beautiful curation of pieces that speak to comings and goings, appendages of spirit gained and lost in the context of family and human connections….[the] compelling story by Julie Day, “Holes in Heaven,” is about two brothers covertly plotting a reunion with their parents by means of a bazaar science experiment. They both believe their parents to have traveled not to heaven, as in the afterlife, but to the heavens as a physical place contained in small, dark nebulae. Threaded throughout this story is a constellation of complicating factors, such as the twin brothers’ rivalries and insecurities, their loneliness and what it drives them to. The ending is startling and elegant.”
You can read the entire review here.
In addition to its other powers, the Arizona heat compels decay. My forty-year-old apartment building with its Class C construction and Title Eight clientele didn’t stand a chance. The stench had overtaken my bedroom months ago, the epicenter of my carefully assembled physics experiment. Even with a bandana tied around my face, the room stank like clam bellies festering in the desert sun. (Continue reading excerpt…)