Scanning Stories:

Reflecting on a want to publish a host of short stories written while incarcerated.
April 2022



    I've decided that I'll make high resolution scans of the short stories I wrote while I was incarcerated. I wrote somewhere around one hundred poems, stories and comic strips during that four year period.

    I did not keep them all, and those that I held onto personally were thrown away a few years ago. At the time, I really did not know what I could or should do with them. Prior to their disposal, however, I did manage to scan a few. Those stories live on my website. The short stories that are currently in my possession were kept safe by my older sister Rhonda from the time I mailed them to her up until a few months ago. These will make up the bulk of what will be featured.

    I have not read any all the way through. Quite possibly to avoid being transported back to that place. Nevertheless, I aim to scan those I have currently so that they may be preserved regardless of the traumatic experience.

    It's not always, or ever, easy to rest my mind on that time in my life. Oftentimes I forget that the time spent there was passed not alone, but as an entire family unit; complete with a handful of great friends who also wrote, sent me books and magazines.

    You have to own your entire life, all of it, including the mistakes and the time spent dealing with the repurcussions of your actions. It's not always pretty, but sometimes it's all there is for a time. These stories were a way for me to survive a moment in my past so that I might be able to arrive at a new present.

    I'm really excited to share them, even if they're riddled with typos, aggressive commas and semicolons.