Winter’s Beauty (& New Published Story!)

wintry limbs tremble

under nature’s gray blanket

coating thick like wool

foamy froth that climbs our knees

ice that bends and shimmers trees

On this chilly winter day, I’m happy to celebrate another publication! My short story “An Unlikely Ally” is in Wildfire Magazine’s newest issue, Identify & Aftermath, which was released yesterday in digital form. The print copy is available for order at the first link, and I also have a discount code I’m happy to share with friends if you like!

Wildfire is an incredible magazine dedicated to “the women ‘too young’ for breast cancer” as their motto goes. All of the contributors are women diagnosed under age 45. One thing that I find especially exciting in this particular issue is that it’s their first cover to feature a uni! Representation matters, and in a world obsessed with women’s bodies and perfection, it’s pretty powerful to see a beautiful woman with a scar like mine on the cover of a magazine that holds my story.

“An Unlikely Ally” is about how my four-year-old and I faced the mysteries and difficulties of health care during the pandemic after I was diagnosed with stage 3 HER2+ breast cancer and he was diagnosed with a rare esophageal issue within a year of each other. It is also a story of what it means to be a mother as a young adult cancer survivor and the ways in which we grow and love even when life is at its most difficult.

There is a lot of tough stuff out there in this world, but there is also a lot of beauty out there. We just need to learn how to look for it. Stay beautiful, friends!