New Short Story: “Shattered Sidewalks of the Human Heart”

The latest issue of Clarkesworld contains my new short story, “Shattered Sidewalks of the Human Heart.” It’s a sort of spiritual predecessor to my story “Things With Beards” – another attempt to queer classic monster movies.

What if King Kong was real? What if we found something that magnificent – and captured it – and exploited it – and destroyed it? How would humanity change, after something like that?

The story takes place on September 1st, 1939, in a New York City forever changed by Kong’s climb and fall in 1933. A closeted gay cab driver happens to pick up Ann Darrow, the woman Kong carried to the top of the Empire State Building, and in their shared mourning might find the seeds of something truly transformative.

Oh, honey,” she said, one hand reaching forward to touch my shoulder.

She was kind. That much was true. I’d imagined her in the hold of the ship, comforting Kong in his chains and his seasickness. Backstage, calming him down while tiny men flashed cameras in his helpless face. Eighty stories up, pleading with him to pick her back up, trying to tell him that the airplanes wouldn’t shoot him while he was holding her. Angry at him for not understanding her, or for understanding and not wanting to put her at risk.

Read the full story here!!

Posted on: July 16, 2019, by : Sam J. M.
File under: Blog, New Publications