An excerpt in celebration of International Bat Appreciation Day

Hanging upside down on a wooden perch was an animal that Louise had never seen before. It looked like a silver fox with demon wings. Piper hastily opened the locked and reached into the cage.
“Be careful!” Louise warned. “You don’t know what that thing is!”
“I know exactly what it is,” the girl replied. The animal’s clawed feet embraced her hand tenderly as she wrested it from its prison. “The one I know is much older.”
Suddenly a door on the back wall smashed open. A man in his late fifties wearing a safari helmet and khaki clothes leaped into the arena. He was holding a shotgun in one hand and a whip in the other. Continue reading

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An excerpt to celebrate Piper’s birthday!

The freaks sat at the long wooden table and banged on it with their forks chanting, “Make a wish! Make a wish! Make a wish!”

“My friends, you’ve all given me everything I could ever wish for. I’ve never felt more accepted in all my life. I can’t think of anything that would make me happier.”

But still they chanted. So Piper closed her eyes and thought about the one thing she wanted. When she opened them, she blew out the candles. The Curiosities all hooted and applauded. Continue reading

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Piper celebrates Memorial Day

A steamboat sounded its horn as it departed the pier to collect passengers from New York City. Standing upon an outdoor stage beneath a giant seashell canopy, Sam Gumpertz was greeted by cheers, whistles, clapping hands, clapping feet, and even the clapping flippers of the Seal Woman.

Sam extended his hand to the three distinctive landmarks that ascended high into Coney Island’s unblemished blue sky: The Wonder Wheel, the Thunderbolt, and the hundred-foot bejeweled structure that towered above a new roller coaster called the Bobs.

“Welcome to another summer at Dreamland. Or at least what’s left of it,” Sam announced, bowing to the small crowd. Continue reading

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