I know I knew I went I came I turned the corner and called your name I searched for fire, for love, for life I heard your voice through blackest ice I looked for you in grime and grit through heaping hills of counterfeit I hunted hope on VR screens in fairytales and in dreams through desert sand and arctic floes on eyelashes of embryos in dying stars and Georgian clay atomic dust and cabernet I thrust my heart toward sweet vibration not you, they said: Abomination and still I

Our topic this week is first drafts, and let’s be honest: I am not a trained writer. I don’t have an MFA or a background in journalism or even an English major. So it might amaze you that my novel (now titled The Queen of Hearts) was in near-flawless form when I finished its first draft. Revision? Ha! I had to look up the meaning of the word. I’m not saying I managed to hit every one of the guidelines listed below, y’all, but I came darn close. It takes a special kind of lite