All Stories

Chapter 1 Tiny white dots—seed pods?—tumble across the workspace where the apprentice slumps. The candles spit and flicker. Half of them have already gone dark. He does not stir. Not even when the wind drags fresh lines across the wet pigment markings that he’d drawn so meticulously with his stylus. He only lies there, drool […]

One My father was a rose rustler. The early seasons of my life were measured in the lifecycle of rose bushes, and I memorized David Austin’s catalogue of English roses the way other little boys memorize the makes of cars. My father prized the ability to identify a rose by sight and would quiz me […]

The Xiagu Market was once a place of unparalleled delicacies and unrivaled views. From Chun State, on the other end of the continent, people had journeyed to the fertile valley of Xia for a taste of the market’s offerings—thousand-spice pig trotters, oxtail soup simmered with pickled chrysanthemum greens, bear paw braised in hawberry wine. Bellies […]

Dear Admissions Committee, I know I’m not your typical MDA candidate. You’ll see from my transcript that my undergraduate degree is in the mad sciences, and I only have the minimum required number of art and humanity credits. In my defense, I should say that the mad sciences were never a passion or even really […]

I found a rock that was good to hold. A trip to Beachy Head, one of my days with Charlie. He liked the rock too, kept bringing it back, preferring it to his tennis ball, picking it out of the other uncountable, small, smooth stones. He kept it in his mouth after I told him […]