WFH Views with Hilary Leichter
Wordplay author Hilary Leichter brings us super-short stories based on author work-from-home views! Hilary's debut novel, Temporary, follows a young woman's quest for permanence through a series of bizarre temp jobs. It's lovely, surreal, and razor-sharp. Buy a copy here.
Xuan Juliana Wang's view (author of Home Remedies)
Beyond the window’s majestic proscenium, she could watch the local goings on, and with pen and pad, write about her neighbors. Beyond the window, the street could watch her sitting and working, and spin tales about the writer. It became hard to decipher who was telling whose story, and to whom. It went on like this for some time, but then she moved away. When I moved in, I kept the curtains closed, and no one had time to imagine anything about anyone anymore, ever.
Rachel Vorona Cote's view (author of Too Much)
Alice wanted to get some writing done, but her phone fell into the crevices of the couch. “Oh goodness!” she cried, following her phone down its cushioned hole, only to end up somewhere strange and not quite right. Alice licked her paws before she noticed that, indeed, she was pawed! Curiouser and curiouser, she said, but it came out as a purr. Impossible, perhaps, but Alice often believed as many as six impossible things a day, and all before dry food.
Dennis Norris II's view (host on Food 4 Thot, writer, and author of the chapbook Dennis Norris II from Awst Press)
They keep a beachy photo from the fateful day near their bottle of bourbon. It’s not to remember, but to forget. No, not forget—reinvent. In the story on the scratch paper, the day at the beach doesn’t end in tragedy. The sand doesn’t sink beneath their feet, opening a chasm of regret. The stacks of books don’t go unread, the bottle of Maker’s is half full. It’s just another beautiful sunny afternoon, viewed as if from above, another perfect day for bananafish. They keep writing, and slowly, their friends come back to life.
Emma Copley Eisenberg's view (author of The Third Rainbow Girl)
When the story slips away from her (as stories are wont to do), she sews it into the lining of her dolls. They come to life at night, after she has put her notes and papers away, and they act out the narrative as it should be. Then, when the morning light hits her desk just so, she can unravel the stuffed creatures, pull the skeins of plot from their tails, and finish the composition: only this time, with the benefit and texture of fictions that have already been lived.
Hilary Leichter's view (author of Temporary)
The parrots could only communicate in quotes from Jane Bowles, and only on Thursdays. Yellow Bird, as he was known, was most likely to start the roundelay, with Pink Bird chiming in as befitted a smaller and less regal bird. She admired Yellow Bird but often felt they were stuck in their ways. All they could do was repeat words they had heard before, and never in a new order. There was something beautiful about it though, wasn’t there? Something commemorative. Maybe the words became new in their tiny beaks, though they never missed a syllable. They were Two Serious Birds indeed.