For the last couple days I’ve been working on an old ceramic jug my aunt gave me a few years ago. I remember this water pitcher and its basin sitting on the sideboard in her dining room every time we’d go visit when I was a kid. She’d been given the set as a gift years ago by her brother- and sister-in-law. Over the years, it was broken (no, I didn’t do it!) and repaired with the glue available at the time. When it came to me, the glue hadn’t held, and two large fragments were inside the pitcher waiting to be reattached.

As I set to work removing the hardened and brittle glue from yesteryear, my mind wandered to the edits I’d received on my upcoming short story Summer Stalked due out in the fall with MuseItHOT Publishing. I’d written the summer theater murder mystery a couple years with the best available writing skills I had at the time. Though a good job on the overall story, I’d made some mistakes in the way I’d written the timeline and the character interactions. The edits were much like the acetone I’d been rubbing on the old glue on the pitcher. Undoing the problems that made the pitcher or the story not stay together.

The story is coming along, and the pitcher will be as good as new very shortly. New writing and new glue. Repairing two old but cherished items.

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Brent Archer began writing in 2011 at the nudging of his cousins. His first story sold, and he was hooked! Stay tuned for the Dec 8^th release of his short story The Artistry of Steam publishing in the Gym Boys anthology edited by Shane Allison. Preorder it here.

Visit his website to keep up on upcoming releases, and follow him on Twitter: @brentarcherwrit.