Stories from
May, 2017

He gave his creature the pseudonym he was using when I met him. A little joke, that name. Men of our sort are always hiding.

I called him my angel once, and he shuddered. Later I understood that he counted me among the temptations of which he longed to be rid.

You ask if I saw him transform—I who saw him cross the street to avoid the eyes he had kissed the night before. No. Not in the way you mean.

Hyde came to me only once. Thank God I feared scandal less than I feared his odious person. I suspect he should have killed me afterward.

But Henry Jekyll loved me, and that monster, the vessel of his sins, did not. I submit that it was not made to hold a sinless thing.

R. Gatwood (@iwantanewhead) is a strange case.

We keep saying accident. We keep not saying suicide. Both words keep getting louder and louder.

R. Gatwood is concise.

Exactly one year ago, your friendly editor was on the radio to discuss twitter fiction with Colin McEnroe for WNPR. It was a lot of fun (and at least a little bit scary), and I even got to read #642 by our author-of-the-month R. Gatwood on the air.

Our segment starts around the 6:45 mark.

For months, whenever you hear the word “boundaries,” your ears get hot (I’m not a stalker) and you try not to remember how nice she was.

R. Gatwood’s work has appeared in Wigleaf and Contrary Magazine.

He seemed so happy. And he had been unhappy for so long. And I was so tired of taking care of him.

R. Gatwood is concise.

“Eurydice?” he says for the third time.

Behind him, she waits.

R. Gatwood never looks back.

For May, we’re bringing back our author spotlight series. This time, we’re doing an encore from our first feature and presenting a round of stories from one of our very favorite concise writers, R. Gatwood.

Also, did we mention that Nanoism turned 8 years old over a month ago?