Adventures in Narrative
Barbara Lock, MD, is a writer, editor, teacher, and emergency physician.
Fiction
Voyager Bay
The Fisherman's Seven Dreams
The Story of Girls
Father threw me off the sailboat, gripped the rudder with his left hand, did something with the rope in his clean, right palm. The boat swung around and went away, leaving me cold, kicking, sinking.
The Story of Girls
The Fisherman's Seven Dreams
The Story of Girls
In "The Story of Girls," a newly pregnant journalist travels on assignment to interview a witch.
The Fisherman's Seven Dreams
The Fisherman's Seven Dreams
The Fisherman's Seven Dreams
Maiju meets her husband on the shore of their rocky isle to inspect his catch; he has pulled but three fishes and they are flabby, sickly-looking things, dull of eye and crawling with sea lice.
The Wager
Cooks and Delivery Men
The Fisherman's Seven Dreams
"I stood on the sidewalk with my arms crossed, scowling at my father as Brook rode up on his one-speed. Brook wanted his money, but we were just about to drive away from Minneapolis forever, and cash was tight."
Cooks and Delivery Men
Cooks and Delivery Men
Cooks and Delivery Men
Paramedics find the body of a Cook in a single room also occupied by a Waiter, a Delivery Man, and a father. The paramedics push on the Cook’s heart, but the brain does not restart.
The Cyanotype
Cooks and Delivery Men
Cooks and Delivery Men
Michael gazed at indiscriminate litter in the wide sideyard: motorcycles, shards of plywood, children’s red toys faded beige. Such a shame letting old motorcycles go to scrap, he thought.
The Siren
The Cost of Tuna
The Cost of Tuna
“I just think it might be a way to solve the problem of your failing body, you know?” Brandon says.
“Correction,” Celia says. “That solves the problem of whose body you are going to use when mine fails. There’s a difference.”
(pic: @aykutmaykut)
The Cost of Tuna
The Cost of Tuna
The Cost of Tuna
Olga’s arms would flow over the body, folding, tucking, making ready for the first grave; removing catheters, intravenous lines, making the flesh look respectable for the pathologist, medical examiner, undertaker. The mask’s strap was fatigued, is all, having been baked in the oven next to fish. It shouldn’t have surprised her.(📷 @peraltaprjct)
The Lists
The Cost of Tuna
The Toxicant
This surreal piece of medical fiction, which earned honorable mention in the Saturday Evening Post's Great American Fiction Contest 2020, was Barbara Lock's first published fiction.
The Toxicant
The Toxicant
The Toxicant
"It's like he has a mouthful of roaches that are clamoring to crawl out and he has to press his lips together to keep them inside," says my friend.
"Can you be more explicit?" I ask my friend. "I'm tired of having to guess what you mean all the time."
(starts on page 68)
Short Prose Forms and Poetry
Three Poems
On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.
On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.
Read "Against Beginnings," "In Which I Imagine a Softening," and "The Terrible Dreaming," in The Disappointed Housewife.
On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.
On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.
On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.
Read this poem at jmww.
Domesticated Man
On the Nature and Treatment of Wonder.
Only Young Women Were Adjudged
Read this poem at nurture.com
Only Young Women Were Adjudged
Evidence in Favor of My Capacity
Only Young Women Were Adjudged
Only Young Women Were Adjudged was published on juked.com on 3.31.22
Evidence in Favor of My Capacity
Evidence in Favor of My Capacity
Evidence in Favor of My Capacity
Sometimes I jump from one time and place to another with insufficient preparation. Indeed, this is the rule. The key to enjoying yourself in this situation is to avoid judgment. I can’t be all things to all people, I tell myself. There is a sadness that never goes away.
Seven Oscillations
Evidence in Favor of My Capacity
Evidence in Favor of My Capacity
Seven short prose pieces reminiscent of parables in both form and tone.The pieces begin on page 163. Peripheries is published annually by Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions
Somebody is Disenfranchised
Somebody is Disenfranchised
Somebody is Disenfranchised
The micro Somebody is Disenfranchised appears near the bottom of Versification's June 2021 Contest issue, along with an audio recording.
Moving Day
Somebody is Disenfranchised
Somebody is Disenfranchised
Moving Day is featured in Cobra Milk, issue 2.
Creative Nonfiction and Interviews
Insect Music
How to Subvert the Illness Narrative
God in Spanish
"Insect Music," which concerns itself with COVID, fear, compassion, and love, gives the reader a front row seat to pandemic history. Many thanks to The Forge for nominating this essay for the Pushcart.
""What is fear, and how does it relate to knowledge? Was I afraid because of what I knew, or what I didn’t know?"
God in Spanish
How to Subvert the Illness Narrative
God in Spanish
This CNF, which contains a literal body count, is not for the faint of heart.
How to Subvert the Illness Narrative
How to Subvert the Illness Narrative
How to Subvert the Illness Narrative
A craft interview with David Ryan / April, 2021