ANIMATION SERIes: LINES FROM REJECTED STORIES
Rejections are rough. And I’ve had [will have] plenty.
This animation series resurrects lines from some of my stories that didn’t quite make the submission-cut, but still offer a few choice moments that were begging for a second chance — and a new medium.
from VICEROY
Dore waits, watching for the mistaken monarchs — the bright oranges and golds — to abandon the branches, leaving the tree stripped and exposed, unrecognizable from just a moment before. Or maybe, Dore thinks, the butterflies will decide to tighten their delicate hold — a grip soft enough to balance on the stamen of a flower — and rip the tree from the ground, tear it away from the earth and pull it into the air. It’s a spectacle that could make headlines: as curious as the boy in the bubble or a two-headed snake or an unexplained mist that manifests into a heavenly figure. But mostly, likely, Dore thinks, that sort of show will go unnoticed. There is little left to surprise us — that we haven’t seen already. So too, a tree can simply fly away without much fanfare, without fuss – to find somewhere with yielding and healthy ground. Where its roots can settle and hold on.
from CONNATE
The dentist’s teeth are flawless, perfectly straight and a brilliant white. And fake. A carefully constructed bridge, crown and veneers rebuilt the remaining broken smile that shattered during the accident, leaving bits of broken sharp jagged teeth. Before seeing patients, the dentist rinses this fabricated, flawless smile with Listerine, relying on its harsh mint medicinal smell to mask the alcohol on his breath. He has anxiety – leaning over, inches from the patient’s face — that they can smell something beyond the minty camouflage, that they can see the distortions, the unnatural arch of his hairline, the details in the dark grooves and the stretched, spider-web skin next to patches that are too smooth for his age. He wears make-up. An intricate balance of purples and pinks and oranges and browns to try and blend the scars into natural tones – to add highlights and lowlights to manipulate his face back to the familiar.