Editor’s Note
Like most of Houston’s seasons, and perhaps the city as a whole, the Houston winter has no conventional identity. Pleasant mornings, frigid nights, and muggy afternoons will make appearances in the same week, sometimes in the same day. The vagaries of Houston life and weather do not lend themselves to thematic unity. The Lion in Winter never sweats, and on 34th Street Santa doesn’t have to shed his layers. At the moment I write this, it is cold outside, so I begin this editor’s note by tackling traditionally wintry themes.
If you’re interested in reading these stories in order form darkest to brightest, you’d do well to start with “Baby,” a story so twisted you might think we pulled it from our genre pile (the top of our genre pile). “Baby” is a tale that addresses how some of us fail to traverse the wintry passages of our lives. I don’t like spoilers, so I won’t say anything more. We’re proud to publish the debut story of Heather LeFebvre, co-founder of the journal Broad! and an MFA student at Texas State University.
We move on to the next interpretation of winter. Matthew Fogarty’s “Plain Burial” is about honoring the past as a prelude to moving on. Mr. Fogarty’s story tackles death and decay as transitional states, a perfect fit for our journal as we march forward into 2015. Without saying too much, “Plain Burial” was the first submission of its kind for us (in addition to just being a great story). We hope you enjoy it.
And now, changeable like our weather, we pivot to different themes entirely. Hope comes in all shapes and sizes, and in all manner of places. Why not in the form of a secondhand motorcycle at a Golden Corral? With Austin Tremblay’s “Dependable,” we bring our winter story cycle to an end, hinting at the melting snow while bringing Story|Houston back to its cosmopolitan roots. Mr. Tremblay is a PhD student at the University of Houston, and we look forward to seeing more from him.
Lastly, we have art from Chelsea Keeton, Nick Senkel, Elena Lacey, and another excellent cover featuring Driftwood from Matt Boelsche. Story|Houston’s stable of gifted artists has helped it develop an identity, one more cohesive than its city’s weather.
We hope you enjoy the stories.
David Monroe
Co-Founder and Editor
Story|Houston