Word for Word: Travail

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: travail.

The travail of wealthy relatives relegating you to work in their kitchen

The orphan’s parents were sleeping in the house while she was visiting relatives in the country. The relatives looked down upon her, a poor cousin whose mother married into poverty for love. When her relatives sent the orphan back to her humble home — only to find it was no more and both her parents were deceased, her travails overwhelmed her. She was sobbing when the coachman insisted on returning her to her disdainful relatives.

Sirens Call Magazine has accepted my story, “Starless Night,” and will publish it in their upcoming Spring 57zine issue.

Variety Pack published my historical story “Portrait” in their February 3, 2022 issue 7:

Issue VII