A Supernatural Short Story Just For You

I'm sharing something different this month: a work of fiction about visiting home, motherhood, dead fish, and various portals into the self, for you to read or listen to.

Photo by Justin Heap on Unsplash

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My latest novel ANIMAL INSTINCT is about a woman rediscovering her desire in midlife — it’s been called a best book of the year by NPR, Oprah Daily, and more. You can order it here. And hey, if you do get a copy, DM me your receipt and I’ll comp you a paid subscription to this very newsletter, Writing on the Verge (this gives you access to alllll the archives, which otherwise get paywalled after a month) ✨✨✨✨✨

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I write to you on the solstice, from the midst of these meager days where it’s dark by 4:30pm. Very adorably, it has just snowed for the first time this year here in New York, right before Christmas, for people who are into that kind of thing.

Something about these long nights, that sense that change is coming — a new year is right around the corner, for better or for worse! — lends itself to burrowing and coziness and watching movies and reading, especially ghost stories, which are so often really self-reflection stories. (Seriously, I love Christmas ghost stories — the Victorians were on to something with their year-round spookiness.)

Because I think it’s ok if we all take a little productivity break now and then, and because reading is a healthy part of the writer’s balanced diet, I’d like to share, in this month’s newsletter, a previously unpublished short story, “Alewives.”

Quick note: I wrote the first draft of this 6 or 7 years ago, and couldn’t quite figure it out. A few years later, I had a draft that was way too long, hovering at an unwieldy length of 30 pages or so. Recently I found it languishing in a drive, cut thousands of words, and decided it wasn’t as terrible as I thought. I see many of the themes I would later explore more in my novel Animal Instinct lingering here between the lines. It’s a strange story, one that combines a visit to one’s hometown (perhaps you are doing this for the holiday!) and all it can stir up; a whiff of the supernatural; a new mother’s hunger for self-knowledge. And a beach covered in dead fish. Festive!

PS: I have also recorded the story, in case you need something to listen to while walking a dog, or wrapping last-minute presents or something. I am NOT a professional audiobook reader and I fuck up while reading it but I just went with it. Enjoy?