The inspirations and origins for our stories.
Emily McIntyre’s story “Jewel/Gem Offering” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 12 January 2018. Summer in Portland is a riot of roses. Funereal roses, scattering their fragile petals around them like Miss Havisham’s train; glowing roses like tiny sun-bits just waiting to be noticed; classic tea roses whispering of the past. I spend a lot of time on my bike in the summer in this city, thinking while I ride, and occasionally I pull over…
Katherine Perdue’s story “The Seer at Sunset Hills Shopping Plaza” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 5 January 2018. The idea for this story came to me while working at the library reference desk. An undergraduate asked me a simple question. I looked up the answer. The student thanked me a thousand times and was in awe as though I’d performed some sophisticated magic. I thought about it for a while and realized, it’s not…
Alexandra Grunberg’s story “Emeralds or Amethysts” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 29 December 2017. I was reading The Great Encyclopedia of Faeries by Pierre Dubois, and came across a section on Lucia, and her various incarnations as the “Sleeping Beauty.” Though the faeries/princesses of these myths tended to wake up to charmed lives, I was disturbed by the thought of the less-than-noble princes who took advantage of these sleeping beauties, and wondered if some…
Erik Goldsmith’s story “Sharpington’s Coffers – Current Score 49.8” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 8 December 2017. I wanted to write something about an unknown author (like myself) and how frustrating the publishing world can be. I don’t know about other people, but sometimes I get this gnawing feeling. rejection after rejection, that I’m not creative enough to be published, objectively speaking; that it’s not the story’s fault, but my own lack of ingenuity…
Mariah Montoya’s story “The Wife of Fabian Vitalik” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 24 November 2017. I first started writing “The Wife of Fabian Vitalik” after hearing a few real-life stories about husbands or wives who left their spouse after several years of marriage (these were situations where the split seemed entirely one-sided). I wanted to explore the concept of separation – what makes someone leave? What makes someone stay? Of course, Fabian’s wife…
Joachim Heijndermans’s story “My Book Report on Starlight” was published in Metaphorosis on Friday, 17 November 2017. My family moved from the Netherlands to the USA in 1998, when I was about 8 years old. I did not speak a word of English and was terrified of the prospect of attending a school where I couldn’t talk to anyone. By a pure stroke of luck, the school I attended had another student who also spoke…
