Maxim also told me that he'll be using Diane Kepler's story from Wet, which satisfies the editor in me. :-)
Some more happy reprint…
Some more happy reprint news -- Maxim Jakubowski would like to use "Wild Roses" in his next Mammoth erotica collection. A nice little $100 payment, and I'm also just pleased to have that story seen by more readers, because I'm unreasonably fond of it. I wrote it when I was very sad about the big break-up with Kevin, and now that that's all over, it's somehow satisfying to have had one clearly good thing come out of that sad time. I think it's one of my better stories.
Hi Mary Anne,
Hadn’t read this one before; it’s quite lovely–a tearful and optimistic autumn and the title is sweetly evocative too.
I don’t quite know why i keep coming back to read your journal–may be it’s those south asian resonances and phd. agonizings ; ). Anyway, take care.
(There’s a “let” that looks like it should be a “led” in _Wild Roses_ but i guess you’ll catch that soon enough : )
I’m never sure why any of you read my journal (it seems to be for remarkably varied reasons), but I’m just glad you do. It’s nice to know that I’m not just throwing my words out into the void. 🙂
Thanks for catching that typo! Fixed now.
I’m also glad you liked the title. It’s always tricky, using the word “rose” in a title, I think. Along with “dream”, “star”, “love”, “heart”, etc… 🙂
Recommended title for your next story or poem: “The Dream of Starlove Roseheart.”
Oh, that’s so pretty! I have no time or brain to write just now, but someone should write it, at any rate. Maybe Jed? Heather? Karen?
Somehow that makes me think of my friend Kira Berman, who grew up on a commune, and whose mother gave her the choice (at age twelve or so) of two middle names: “Amanya” or “Love”. She went with Amanya, which is prettier, but there’s something to be said for Kira Love Berman, I think. 🙂
THE DREAM OF STARLOVE ROSEHEART
Her parents left the city
To live out on the land
Where grass was green and streets weren’t mean
They wandered, hand in hand.
Their child was born a free soul
So pure in heart and mind
Her parents swore she’d be no whore
Of the world they’d left behind.
They named her for her heart; they chose
to name her for her cheeks of rose
They named her for the stars above;
And because all you need is love.
They raised the child to be
Environmentally aware,
In hempen skirts and unbleached shirts
With daisies in her hair.
So Starlove Roseheart lives today
The life her parents choose.
And late at night, she dreams of bright
Fast cars, and high-heeled shoes.
I have had a strange craving lately for high-heeled shoes. I can’t explain it. It may just be my shortness rising up and overwhelming me, but I think there’s something more to it than that. I want to put everyone in high-heeled shoes. Kevin. Jed. My friend Kathy from grammar school, who was 6’2″ in bare feet. We should all be taller, teetering. Don’t ask me why.
I like to think that as a fairly tall woman travelling with a 6’5 companion, when I wear heels, we seem like two creatures from a stately race of giants. This does wonders for my weight issues when confronted with tiny little twig women: see, it’s not that I have a big ol’ butt; it’s that I’m *Amazonian*!
Thanks Karen, fun poetry is just so…. fun.