EXCERPTS

EXCERPTS2022-09-19T15:35:21+00:00

The Sea at Catterline

1963, Scotland

The sound pounds at everything that has ever stalled you, that you have feared. In your winter boots, you feel the vibration of the sea’s insistent thrumming. The North Sea has no regard for you. Its spray blurs your eyes. You stand, legs apart, rooted to keep your body and easel upright. […]

How To Remove a Lady from Her Seaside Home

When you hear that your aunt has passed, cry. Then, enlist the help of an organizer and a maid. Bring these two wonders in a red Toyota to your aunt’s seaside abode. House them in the first floor parlor and make sure you sleep upstairs in the guest room facing the sea. Let them know […]

The Causeway

As Julie took the first curve of the causeway, her VW bug shone like a fire engine. The Reach was empty since the lobstermen had left land to lay traps at sea. She rounded the second curve, and her car veered. It flipped over the boulders, flanking the causeway, and thudded into the cold water, landing on its […]

Taken

It is dusk. I am in the museum alone, the only “artist in residence.” For a week, I have the honor of being scared by great art—day and night. I sleep on a cot. I wander the rooms in bare feet. Before me is Gauguin’s Riders on the Beach. Two half-naked men on steeds turn […]

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