To Be a Wildflower in Yosemite
A nurse abandons her life and drives into Yosemite, expecting cold and punishment, but finds a forest blooming where it shouldn’t and a silence that doesn’t demand anything from her. As she lets herself rest for the first time in years, the question shifts from how to go back to whether she wants to at all.
Writing The California Fever Dream
“Outside, the sky began changing colors like it was unsure which version of the sunset to run. A Joshua Tree caught fire, silently. Beautifully. And then reassembled itself in reverse.”
— Static at the edge of 29 Palms
“She could taste the day. Hot pennies. Sunscreen. The faint chemical sweetness of melted plastic… She told herself this was normal. California normal. A climate that didn’t ask permission.”
— What California Makes
“The heat was biblical and immediate. By the time she had crossed the wash and climbed the low rise beyond it, her shirt was sticking to her back and her thoughts had gone strangely bright around the edges.”