“Idle Hands” is the reason I love damselflies, dragonflies, and the Azores, at least from afar. It all started with one isolated species of damselfly found on the Azores Archipelago. Ischnura hastata has been found to reproduce parthenogenetically, that is without males. This fact, along with some beautiful images of the islands themselves, somehow inspired a generational story about mothers, daughters, the multiverse, and a family’s unusual addiction.
It took “Idle Hands” a few years to find its way to both final draft and a welcoming home. I couldn’t be more thrilled with where it landed. The New Haven Review is fantastic journal. It will also be part of my collection Uncommon Miracles, due out later this year with PS Publishing.
“Idle Hands” is the first story that I believed in enough to make my own family a writing-related promise: when it sold, I would take them to Paris. The reason I chose Paris is now lost to the vagaries of time, but I believe it had to do with the amount of writing work on my part and the amount of sacrifice on my family’s part, all so my skills could grow. The promise itself, unexpectedly, will be at least partially fulfilled later this year. As with much in my life, “it sort of just happened.”