In most of the young adult novels I’ve read, a romantic man-woman relationship is central to the story. And in nearly every case, the man is dominant and the woman is submissive. This dynamic often plays out subtly—so subtly that it’s hard to identify it or determine where it comes from. In extreme cases of this, you get an abusive relationship. Unfortunately, young adult novels that deal overtly with abuse tend to fall into traps of cliché and archetype. In my experience, they all follow the same formula, which can be broken down thus: Setting: a typical public high school. Protagonist Jane meets Jack. Jack is older—most likely the new, cool kid at school—and...
Read MoreKelly Morris is a recent transplant to Los Angeles. She is also a current MFA candidate at Spalding University. Her novel Since God Was A Boy was a finalist in the Writers’ League of Texas 2013 manuscript contest. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Spry and Sundog Lit. When she’s not writing, Kelly can be found hanging out with her kids, who remain unconvinced that being a writer is actually a very cool job. Kelly’s short story “You, the Ex, and the Neighbor,” was featured in Issue #2 of Spry. Samantha Eliot Stier, Spry’s contributing writer, had the opportunity to talk to Kelly about this story and what...
Read MoreWhen we were younger, the length of time between now and the next exciting thing to take place felt like several lifetimes. If a friend’s birthday party was taking place in any amount of time longer than 2 hours, forget it. Might as well be a month. Might as well be an eternity. Successfully passing time was always something of an accomplishment. Now that we’re adults, well, even though the space between exciting things is typically full of reading, writing, working, and whatever else should come up, it’s still hard to wait for exciting things to happen, even though life passes by us at a much faster pace. Finding productive, engaging ways to spend our interim time...
Read More