Issue #1
featuring work by Chuck Augello, Frances Koziar, Stuart Watson, and Jon Wesick
Editor’s Note
On the cusp of our debut issue, it feels not only natural but pertinent for us to share a few words on everybody’s favorite (and probably most neglected) topic: expectations.
A story works (or fails) based on how well its author is able to manage his reader’s expectations–of the next plot detail, sentence, word–and the stories we’ve gathered for you not only manage these expectations in compelling and creative fashion but also in some ways explicitly address how we deal with expectations in our lives. “Ask Me Why” is a very short piece that takes a couple of sharp, dramatic turns (literally, in one sense); additionally, the story primarily examines how our expectations can drive our motivations, especially when those expectations are upset.
“His Second Mistake” even somewhat meta-ly takes up this idea of what to expect by our narrator’s throwing Chekhov’s gun in the reader’s face before heading off to a poetry slam. “Pool Party at Captain Jack’s” perhaps is the most playful with a reader’s expectations, moving from the literal to surreal and back again with its delicious prose and subverting expectations often from word to word. Oh, and there is a dolphin.
Lastly, the ultimate test of how well a story manages the expectations of the reader is its ending. Does it meet, subvert, or blow our expectations out of the water? For me, “Ashes to Ashes” is an excellent example of the latter; it is a story that is able to be both entirely predictable yet surprising down to its final, glorious line.
Thank you for taking a few wrong turns with us.
-LT
Stories
