It’s been a year since his father left, and because his mother won’t provide any of the answers he craves, Billy turns to his imagination in order to cope. At the same time that Billy begins to spout increasingly outlandish fabrications, rumors spread of a leopard on the loose, prowling the neighborhood. Billy becomes determined to hunt it down, a daring feat that will prove to his mother that not everything he says is a lie. Capturing the moment when the illusions of childhood either fall away or morph into half-truths, Leopardia tells a story of a boy forced to see the cracks within his fantasies and to accept the grown-up state of unknowing.

My story “Leopardia” was published in Day One, Amazon’s literary journal. It is also available to purchase as a Kindle Single.