PAULA WHYMAN
curiouswriter

In which we wonder about writing, food, music,  
& random curious events. 

Gravity Dancers: Fiction By Washington Area Women edited by Richard Peabody, founder and editor of Gargoyle Magazine. Forthcoming July 2009, Paycock Press.

Sand People

Excerpt...

His people came from the desert. They came from the same sort of desert where, thousands of years before, the Lord helped Moses get water from a rock. It took them many years to leave. But at least by then they had learned there could be no water from rocks.

Between here and the desert, before the moment when Gabriel stood as he did, gazing out at the ocean, five generations of his family had turned to dust, among them his grandfather and even, now, his father, who would never know that he had made it right to the edge of the earth, where the earth gave way to water only, water spreading out beyond his capacity to see. Before he could come to this place, all the generations who knew only desert had to die.


Selected Works

Fiction

"DRIVER'S EDUCATION"


Sexual and racial tensions in a classroom threaten to explode as a young teen faces choices that will haunt her in adulthood. ORDER HERE
"THE MIDDLE WAY"

A young girl in Thailand is sold into prostitution by her mother.
“STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS”

A woman is haunted by events from the past that threaten to disturb her domestic life.
"SAND PEOPLE"

A man battles neighbors to build his dream house, while his son resists the pull of the family heritage.
"MINOR OFFENSES"

A bored housewife has a sexual encounter with a utility worker, with disastrous results.
"THE ROSE GARDEN"

A psychologist confuses fantasy and reality as she travels alone for the first time after her divorce.
Humor

"CHECK, PLEASE: WHEN THE MENU IS A MINEFIELD"

Dining out with dietary issues, and Twizzlers. From the Washington Post.

“Potty Talk”

A homeowner finds something Very Special about her toilet. From the Washington Post Magazine.