an excerpt from ‘Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-Market Dilettante’

by Ayun Halliday

The assistant manager left us alone to get dressed in a store room. “Don’t dawdle though. Doors open at nine and some of those people have been waiting since seven.”

Nate and I knelt to unzip the footlocker-sized bags that we’d found in the trunk of the car his agency had rented for us for the long drive to the suburban mall. I found myself wishing that we’d stopped for coffee on the way.

“Holy shit,” Nate whispered as we contemplated the impressive, eerie contents. “Which one do you want to be?” (read on…)

An excerpt

by Angela Young

Part One, Thursday: Iris’s Story

I have come home, after a long and difficult journey.

I am at a storytelling festival but it isn’t the place, the mediaeval castle with its tiered lawns or the gloriously striped storytelling tents down on the jousting field that speak to me of home. It’s the way I feel when I tell stories, the way I feel when I hear stories. The ancient stories that will be told over the next few days sing to me and comfort me, sadden me and strengthen me and speak to my soul of home. (read on…)