I’m so happy to announce that I have a short story in a new anthology! The book is called Oregon’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction, and my story is called “Crush”, about a girl processing her crush on her band’s guitarist in the midst of their first gig.

Look, it’s a book!

Here’s a little excerpt from the beginning:

Sam has the prettiest eyes. They’re the color of Oregon sky above a drizzly sea, and only a shade grayer than her baby-blue guitar. No matter what she’s saying, or what song she’s playing, it always feels like she’s looking directly at me.

She’s straight as a flute, of course. They always are.

“Wow.”

I jerk, hitting the note too late, too sharp, and swear. Sam laughs.

“What?” I say, holding the mic tightly in front of me like a tether.

“Sorry.” Sam lets her hands fall from the guitar’s strings, cradling it gently in one hand. “I was gonna say, you just sing this song so well.” She winks. Bastard.

“You were great too, baby,” Mike, Sam’s boyfriend, calls from a table. Sam blows him a kiss, and then her eyes snap back to me.

“Should we take it from the top?”

I nod, adjust the mic on its stand. Rachel, our drummer, taps in the beat of the song, and Sam picks the first few lines of melody. I close my eyes, squeeze the mic, and let go.

Of course, to read the full thing, you’re going to need to buy the book. You can buy the softcover here, and they have an affiliate program, so if you follow any of the links in this post and end up purchasing something from their site, that’ll kick a little something back to me as well.

I am really excited about this! It’s my first real publication credit, and I’m pretty proud of the story itself. It’s YA and LGBTQ+, both things I love writing, and I really like how the voice turned out. Hopefully it’ll be the first of many!