Word for Word: Conduct

I’m in a writers’ group that meets on Zoom, though before the pandemic we met in person. Every week, we do a writing prompt: someone gives a page number, and our organizer picks a word from a huge dictionary. We write for five minutes. In this example, the word is: conduct.

An antique dresser with my old cat cheetah draped over it

It was the first ball in a century at the haunted house. I scanned the room and observed the music director conduct the orchestra, before I turned my attention to the dancers waltzing in the center of the enormous ballroom.

The transformation astounded me. Days ago, the cavernous room was dark, shadowy, and draped with spiderwebs. Now all the chandeliers had been dusted and were lit with candles. The marble floor was shiny under the lights, and the silks and velvets of the ballgowns shimmered in the candlelight.

But as I watched, I observed that I could see through many of the dancers.

Cloaked Press published my story “Theater Patron” in Kaleidoscope — A Queer Anthology. Proceeds for the latter go to The Trevor Project.

Kaleidoscope A Queer Anthology: 2022 Edition

Sirens Call Magazine published my horror story, “Starless Night,” in their Spring 2022, 57zine issue,

Sirens Call Publications