Whistle

I’ve got a new story up at Hobart Web called “Whistle.” It starts with a woman entering whistling competitions and ends in a trailer at the edge of the Sonoran desert.

I make lists of things I want to write stories about, and for some reason I kept writing the word “whistling” down. I approached it kind of like a challenge — if few people want to listen to someone whistling, then why would they want to read a story about it?

From there I started thinking about talent and how sometimes people are talented at things that don’t sustain them. It’s as if their skill is designed without their best interests in mind.

Points of reference: Willa Cather’s “Song of the Lark,” Stanley Crawford’s “Log of the S.S. the Mrs Unguentine.”

That’s about all. Thanks to Jac Jemc for accepting the piece — it means a lot to have work chosen by such a wonderful writer.

Illustration by Ted Slampyak