Illustrations to accompany my own original short fiction.
"Under the Influence" is a semi-autobiographical account of unreciprocated crushes.
"Under the Influence"
Cover Illustration
"...his eyes fixated on her shoes. Black sketchers. Probably brand new"
"As she neared the dilapidated building, she could see something half concealed by the fog"
"It was quarter-to-three by the time the doctor made his way into the ER waiting room"
"...he had thought of himself as nothing more than some taxidermy moose head in Breton's life. No function, no real purpose. Just something for her to look at with pity in her eyes"
"Her glance dropped to her feet. Black sketchers, worn and dirty with a hole in the toe"
The Carmen in question is actually based on a nasty middle-aged lady I encountered in a grocery store parking lot. I never got her real name - the character was named Agatha at first - but I can never resist a cheesy pun. The story was originally supposed to be a lot darker but writing it was starting to affect my mental health. The answer: make it funny.
"Carmen's a Bitch"
Cover Image
"He turned around with a pathetic look on his face. He couldn’t have been younger than 24 or so, but you’d think he was a toddler who just dropped his ice cream cone."
"For a second it appeared that her fingers had come clean off, chipped acrylics staring back at her from the other side"
"...staring at the pale pink post-it note on her desk"
"Another page, another bullshit karma quote"
"A huge white stain that could have been chalk dust spread across the entire driver’s side of her powder blue car. Thick streaks of black just as long lay haphazardly overtop..."
"Coarse, curly ponytail jutting from the back of her cap, thick round glasses always a little crooked on her face. Maybe it was attractive among the youth those days, but Carmen thought she looked more like that singing chipmunk in the blue sweater"
"She clenched the receiver, almost as if trying to crush it with her bare hand. Every muscle in her body was so tense that she probably could have done it."
" '...and your in-laws can choke on chow-mein for all I care' "
" 'I don’t care if he came in here and slapped you across the face with a rubber chicken...' "
