New Work Out: Centerpoint

Actually this piece has BEEN out. I just didn’t know it.

Someone at work was asking about my new book, Woman of a Certain Age, a story collection, and I said let me show you my website. I googled my name and up popped the piece, published online in Third Wednesday. Okay, that’s a surprise.

I’d submitted it in November and it was taken soon after. I just had gotten so busy with holiday rush that I hadn’t checked my Submittable dashboard to see it had been accepted. Sheesh.

Anyway, I’m linking to it now and will soon get it up under Other Writing. A pleasant surprise and acknowledgement that 2025 had truly been a fruitful year. Now as I take time to think ahead to 2026: I have a lot of work to do to raise to the level of 12 ACCEPTANCES IN ONE YEAR!!

I have to start cracking on writing new stuff and submitting. Maybe time for another collection . . . hmm. Keep tuned—book launch for Woman of a Certain Age to be announced.

I always like to do an origin story of how the piece evolved from concept to words on a page. Fortunately, this short (about 800 words) came out pretty much whole-cloth. The idea had not been tumbling around too long. It comes from what I’ve been musing on for a while: Trying to stay healthy during a stressful time in our collective American history—and since we don’t know how all this will end, or if it will, finding tools to deal with the chaos and upheaval. All the damn news. We can blame social media, but it isn’t going away. In fact, I sometimes like the distraction. But it is distraction, a time sucker. What if there was a drug that limited device interaction, that curbed our behavior/addiction to the phone?

That was the basis. A question.

Also, a friend had just passed away, unexpectedly and that was on my mind. The soreness of heart. And, a few days before, when riding on a path through the woods, I’d spied someone sitting in a lawn chair randomly on a hillside and thought: Hmmm, are they okay and what a great idea! Just taking time out of time to chill in nature.

So all these ideas coalesced into a small piece on finding a centerpoint, wellbeing. The piece is called Centerpoint.