My latest story has been released!
In the newest installment of Rhonda Parrish’s Alphabet Anthology series, E is for Evil, 26 authors examine and explore the many ways in which the nature and theme of evil manifest. For this anthology, I was given the letter “Z” and told to do my best. And so, in “Z is for Zaltu,” Masuma, a teenage Muslim girl living in the city of Puxhill, is forced to deal with a very real evil: racism and hatred in today’s America. One of her classmates, a vicious bully, has targeted Masuma for particular persecution… but is there something beyond simple ignorance and bigotry at play?
Yeah. I was really nervous about tackling this topic for a number of reasons, as it’s both timely and complicated. There are no easy answers, and no easy solutions. But when I read the news every day, it terrifies me that we live in such chaotic, troubled, tumultuous times. I believe in tolerance and acceptance, and I dream of a world where we don’t have to fight for such things on a daily–hell, an hourly–basis. And so I decided to take a chance and tell a story of a young woman of faith, who must confront this kind of evil lest it destroy both her -and- her tormentor.
Maybe I did okay with this story. Maybe I got it all wrong. I honestly don’t know. But I’d dearly love it if people actually read “Z is for Zaltu” and let me know, one way or another, how it turned out. Maybe we’ll get to see Masuma again. After all, Puxhill is a strange and wonderful city, and there’s always room for more adventures…