I’m a few days late in announcing this, but I’ve just had a new story published in Factor Four Magazine Issue 31 titled “Warm as Stone” that’s free to read. It’s a flash fiction piece, so saying anything about it would probably give too much away. I was inspired to write this story after reading Priya Sharma’s story, “Pearls”, so if you’re familiar with that story, you’ll have some idea what my story is about.

It was published on January 1st, but I’m only announcing it now since I’ve been on vacation. My family went with another family to Disneyland and Universal Studios. We rang in the New Year by watching fireworks at Marina del Rey, woke up way too early the next morning to watch the Rose Parade, and we spent the last night of our vacation in Las Vegas before driving back home.

It was an eventful vacation, however, the most eventful thing happened on the first night of the trip while we were driving to California. The rear passenger axle of our rental van suddenly popped out while we were on I-15. Fortunately, our tire stayed on or we would have crashed and probably died. We eventually got a replacement van, but it was terrifying to sit there on the left shoulder of the freeway while vehicles sped past, causing our van to shake.

Fortunately, none of the trucks zipping past hit our sticking-out tire, but it was a constant worry. We had to wait for an hour before a tow truck came and by then our nerves were pretty well shot. I remained worried we’d experience more vehicle trouble the rest of the trip and had trouble enjoying myself the first couple of days of the vacation. But, we’ve made it back safe and sound and I’ve returned home to the wonderful news that my first story of the year has already been published. Check it out here.