Max Todd.

Heyo!! Published fiction author here!! Recently, I had the privilege of publishing an old flash fiction of mine, “Lethe,” in a local magazine, the Meridian Creative Arts Journal. It’s about fly fishing, and also about the nuclear apocalypse, but most of all, it’s my response to writing about love, and what’s worth writing about love. All that in 1000 words, too—because, you know, I’m so good at conciseness and that kind of thing. In any case, it was such a privilege to not only be able to put my name in actual print (!!), but to also do a reading of this story. I’ll do more voices next time, and that’s a promise, but I had a lot of fun this first time and would be honored to read again. If you’re interested in reading “Lethe,” you can read the 51st edition of Meridian online here—I’m the finisher, on page 77. While you’re there, be sure to check out the wonderful work of some of my wonderful writer friends, Sierra Farnum, Jemma Kuster, Ruth Nowotny, Jeffrey Pincus, Emma Schick, and Tristan Skogen (whose name is spelled with an “e,” Meridian). I hate to pick favorites, but Ruth’s “Psalm” will knock your socks off, Jemma’s “The Life Cycle of the Mimic Glass Lizard” would have made me a super fan if I wasn’t already, and Jeff’s “Full of Surprises,” well… it plays out as advertised. I’m gonna risk speaking for them and say your support means a lot to all of us!

While you’re still here, though, I figured it might be fun to talk a little about my process behind the scenes, like with my last SciAll project. Without further ado, let’s talk Lethe! But not out loud, because I don’t totally know how to pronounce it… still.