2025: Unearthing a lost story

I first published this ten years ago, and it disappeared into the ether. Now it seems weirdly relevant? Plus: A writing prompt for you!

Photographer unknown, but huge props to whoever they are

This somewhat off-kilter post is really the fault of Alexandra Samuel, a wonderful writer I’ve worked with in various capacities, who was the biggest fan of my antler-woman-inspired story “2025,” remembered it all these years later, and nudged me to dig it out of the Wayback Machine! Thank you for remembering and for caring, Alex!

Here’s the deal: Once upon a time there was a neat publication called People Holding. They’d send you a picture of people holding things (I think at first it was always antlers, as is the case in my image), and you were to write a related short story for their site. I was honored to be asked to write something for them back in 2015 — it was a fairly fallow period for me creatively, so a project like this was very welcome.

I received the photograph of two underclothed warrioressess that you see above, and I was inspired to write the flash/humor piece I’m pasting below. I thought these gals had a certain…