Hi, friends. My family got home from our Labor Day trip to seaside Mystic, Connecticut, on September 7th.
For me, that means we officially crossed the seasonal threshold.
Now, it’s autumn, and here in northern Vermont, Mother Nature agrees with me.
Leaves are turning crimson and gold. Crab apples litter the ground outside my kitchen window. I’ve found feathers in our nest boxes–some of our hens are beginning to molt. I’m wearing my bathrobe downstairs on these chillier mornings.
Thanks to Alice’s Little Haunted Bookshop and Bank Square Books, I’ve got some new reads for my Spooky Season TBR, too.
September has always felt like a second fresh start, a late New Year of sorts. A shedding, a do-over if needed. We’re back indoors, school’s in session, students are setting academic goals, and schedules are settling once more into stricter routines. This shift inspires many of us to buckle down, to refocus, or to aim higher. As we enter the calendar’s homestretch, many of us exert ourselves in a final, even urgent, burst of concentrated effort. Let this year not be wasted, we tend to think.
In this spirit, I’m offering a September short story. It’s a piece of contemporary fiction just under 4k words, a realistic coming-of-age tale inspired by many things: the time I spent on a pre-professional ballet track, my later years teaching in a richly multicultural, low SES public school (with all its challenges and surprises), and finally my experiences as a mother.
This story, titled You Should Have Stayed, is different from the other work I’ve shared here, especially A King’s Epilogue and Flight. So, if something more modern and literary-leaning isn’t your jam, I totally understand. I like to stretch myself, however, as I aim for versatility, and I’d like to give this piece a home.
I did not email the story because I’m planning other posts and don’t want to clutter your inboxes, but if you’re interested, you can read it here. I’ve also included it on my new page, Fiction Shared Here.
If you read this story, I hope you like it. If anything, I hope it leaves you pondering this question: Who, if anyone, is to blame?
Thanks for reading! Happy fall, and let me know what you’re up to in the comments.
XOXO,
Jenn
Jennifer Shaw 