I’m thrilled to announce that “The Menagerie Machine” is now available in the inaugural issue of Short Édition’s quarterly review, Short Circuit, and from Short Édition Short Story Dispensers.

This tale came about when I was mining my childhood memories for story ideas, and I recalled visiting a double-decker carousel at a theme park in Santa Clara.  Whenever my family did our annual summer road trip to visit my grandparents near San Francisco, we’d alternate going to either California’s Great America (then called Paramount’s Great America) or Six Flags Marine World (then Marine World/Africa U.S.A.).  I ended up making my fictional carousel a single level to keep it focused and to reflect the majority of carousels in the world (I didn’t find out until I was older that two-story ones are rare).  I also based a character on my favorite steed at the Seaside Carousel Mall on the Oregon coast, the hippocampus.

At one point I got stuck on the draft of this one.  Then I saw that a local library was hosting a presentation on the history of carousels.  Jackpot!  The speaker, Darrell Jabin, introduced concepts such as the romance side of a steed and the term “stargazer.”  The draft came together soon after that.