The Mirror of Adolescence
I have a new short story that I’m self-publishing on Amazon, called Veronica Scissors. It’s out for pre-sale now, and goes on sale on February 20th. I hope to release a story a month for the rest of the year. At some point, I will fold all these stories into a short story collection.
As for Veronica Scissors: I wrote it about ten years ago, when my Dad was having a triple bypass. This is easily the bloodiest story I’ve ever written, and that is a reflection of all the time I was spending in doctor’s offices, waiting rooms, and hospitals. There’s also a relentlessness to the story, which I realized some time after writing it was a reaction to the inevitability of disease and loss.
The strongest motivation for the story lay in watching my daughters enter adolescence. I watched them try on lip gloss, make-up, new clothes, various hair-dos, fake lashes and fingernails, fingernail polish, yadayadayada. The list goes on forever. But what struck me at the time was the expression on their faces as they looked in the mirror. They were rarely happy with what they saw. Whatever vision of beauty they were chasing, they weren’t finding. They’d peer into the mirror looking unsatisfied, unable to meet the impossibly high standard of beauty they were attempting to achieve. My wife never wore much make-up and I certainly never emphasized physical beauty or outward appearance. Those standards of beauty were thrust upon them from outside our family and circle of friends. Talk about relentless.
At any rate, the story is on sale February 20th. It’s available for pre-sale now on Amazon.
