I have to say December is one of my favorite months. When the snow hits the desert, it is exquisite, and no one knows how to drive in it down here. It’s hilarious. One day of snow and the whole world stops and yet I love that! The world should stop. So stores don’t open and no roads are plowed and we can walk the dogs and get the wood burning stove blasting and enjoy not being a part of a population for at least a day. Here are some beauties for the holidays:Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
Act II, Scene 7, As You Like It
William Shakespeare (1600)
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Here’s hoping you get snowed in and are forced to read, write, eat cookies and watch the fire. Enjoy these amazing writers in this issue of Connotation Press.
Gary V. Powell is the featured fiction writer for this mid-December issue. He captures the excitement, mystique and horror of being a kid in his three unforgettable flash fiction pieces. And find out more about Gary’s process and what he has in the works in our interview.
Vic Sizemore wraps us inside his claustrophobic world in “Little Wendell’s Fifth,” and doesn’t let go.
Emma Sindelar cracks open the trauma of two crack heads trying not to remember what happened in her powerful story, “Roadkill.”
John Van Wagoner gives us two beauties, “Life in the Gulag of the Old Bed,” and “The Get Away.” How it is to be transformed through a new mattress and how hellish to be a human working the small talk when there’s no escape.
Shanna Yetman’s exceptional story, “Small Bites,” drops us into the angst and frustration of a mother who just can’t appreciate her daughter for who she is.
Paul Crenshaw drops us back in time in his story, “At 3 O’Clock We Will All Stand Up.” Waiting for that damn bell to finally ring and what every kid wished they could do.