About Me
Display Name | Laura Blackwell |
Twitter Handle | pronouncedLAHra |
Website |
What I Write
Writing Sample | I’m Nobody — not the one in Emily Dickinson’s poem, although we share the same views. Tonight, you will find me in the grim green room. When in this room — and I’m dragged back here all too often — I feel edgy and unwell. Perhaps the full moon, creeping above the windowsill like a peeping Tom, is to blame. Boredom presses in like bad weather from these three go-light green walls (the fourth, doubtless an equally aggressively green, is invisible). I pull a volume from the neat rows of identical books, hoping against hope that something interesting will lie between the pages. As always, the books lie blank and silent. The only real book on this shelf is The Runaway Bunny — a good book, but one I’ve read thousands of times. I am not alone here. Would that I were! The child lies stiffly in bed, furred paws resting atop the covers. This nameless, pajama-clad child is of indeterminate sex and species. Its head resembles a stuffed rabbit’s — not a real rabbit, mind you, but a stuffed rabbit. “Hello,” I say tentatively. Without looking at me, the child begins its nightly litany of its possessions. If I had eyes, I would roll them, but I am the least-developed Nobody in the history of fictional characters. Once upon a time, I lived in author’s minds. I frolicked across fresh white pages, danced on the ruled lines. That is what Nobodies are for. Miss Dickinson never realized that there are more than two of us. We are legion, for we are needed. But something terrible happened in the green room. Nobody became a character, and so I am trapped here. From time to time I almost escape, but I always snap back to this cheerless place, where the moon moves in the same arc. —From “The Eternal Goodnight” |
What I Write | My writing includes magic, creepy supernatural elements, hopeful futures, and puckish humor, not usually all in the same story. |
Publications | “Bitter Perfume” (short story) in She Walks in Shadows, October 2015. http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/blog/our-books/she-walks-in-shadows/ “The Eternal Goodnight” (flash) in Every Day Fiction, April 2015 http://www.everydayfiction.com/the-eternal-goodnight-by-laura-blackwell/ “The Distinct Mosaic of Marivel Parado” (short story) in You Gotta Wear Shades, from The Sockdolager, December 2014 http://www.sockdolager.net/yougottawearshades “Slow Burn” (novelette), October 2014 A full list is available at my website. |
My Write-a-thon Goals
Writing Goals | 250 words a day. |
Fundraising Goals | $100 and/or 10 sponsors. |