Because

“What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

How do you solve a problem like your mother?

A ferocious flash fiction story, now a finalist for the Derringer Award.

Accompanied by an exclusive essay by the author on the exhausted genesis of the story at Kris Rusch and Dean Smith's Oregon mystery workshop, the writing life, and the Derringer short list.

"Because." Originally published in Fiction River: Crime; hailed as "high quality" by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Read it and weep.