Vivian R McInerny
Bio
A former daily newspaper journalist, now an independent writer of essays & fiction published in several lit anthologies. The Whole Hole Story children's book was published by Versify Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021. More are forthcoming.
Stories (75/0)
Nature is a Holy Terror
The Chevy idled in the driveway. My dad sat behind the wheel letting the engine warm so it wouldn’t kill on the way to Mass. He smacked his gloved hands together. He fiddled with the radio. From the warmth of the kitchen, I watched smoke blow from the exhaust pipe as though from the large cigarette of a chain smoker. It formed dense clouds in the bitter cold still air.
By Vivian R McInerny2 years ago in Humans
The World Owes You Nothing
Maybe we heard a voice in our heads, like a literary Kevin Costner character: Write it and they will read. So we wrote our best thing. Poured our heart into it. Revealed our deepest and most vulnerable thoughts on the page and then sat back and waited for all the world to be moved (possibly even wowed but no, no, moved is enough) by our ability to transfer abstract ideas and intense feelings into words. And then . . .
By Vivian R McInerny2 years ago in Journal
Dead Birds and Funerals
The two little J sisters walked hand-in-hand into our backyard on a bright sunny summer morning. They were maybe six and four years old, pretty little girls with long blond hair and wide blue eyes in matching floral sundresses. They lived around the corner and across the street. I was surprised to see them.
By Vivian R McInerny2 years ago in Humans
Vietgone: A Thought Provoking Play With Laughs
It's billed as a love story, and not a war story. But all is (un)fair in love and war. I saw the play Vietgone by Qui Nguyen over the weekend at The Guthrie theater in Minneapolis. My hometown is Minneapolis but I left ten minutes after I turned legal (only a slight exaggeration) and haven't lived there since. Two of my siblings and both my parents still live in the area so I go back a couple times a year. The usual pilgrimage for me includes a trip to the Basilica of St. Mary, the Walker Art Center, or at very least the sculpture garden, F. Scott Fitzgerald's place in St. Paul, and The Guthrie.
By Vivian R McInerny2 years ago in FYI
The Case for Lesser Beings
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. The “they” in this case being Earthlings. Due to their primitive brain structure, Earthlings cannot hear well and arrogantly presume none of us can. Give them a thousand years or more of evolutionary development and their ear apparatus will likely improve.
By Vivian R McInerny2 years ago in Fiction