Argh.
I'm planning a short story for On the Premise's current contest, whose prompt is difficult decisions. I vacillated between several different subjects before settling on a story inspired by this recent story (warning: article deals with severe child abuse and carries pictures of a starved and mistreated child) where the teenaged stepbrother of an abused Texas boy evidently called the authorities and got into a fistfight with his stepfather--the child's biological father--over the kid's treatment. I can't think of many decisions that are harder than the one the teen made, though obviously I won't attempt a direct transplant of the RL events. I'm sure the actual in-depth story of the case when it comes out will be more riveting than anything I could come up with.
(This case reminded me of the abuse case of Lauren Kavanaugh, another Texas child who was imprisoned and severely abused by a bio parent-stepparent combo from hell. Obviously two cases more than a decade apart do not a trend make, but the brain will make patterns even where none might exist. And right now my brain is saying, WTH Texas?)
Of course, writing about child abuse means having to read a hell lot about child abuse (and then writing about child abuse), and several blog posts in I'm just about ready to ragequit. ARRRGH WHY DOES THE WORLD SUCK SO HARD GRBLTHTTT
If anyone's interested in the On the Premise contest, we should totally partner up to bully each other into getting something done. You're welcome to take this subject off my hands if you like, but something tells me that material unrelated to child abuse would be better for your well-being.
(This case reminded me of the abuse case of Lauren Kavanaugh, another Texas child who was imprisoned and severely abused by a bio parent-stepparent combo from hell. Obviously two cases more than a decade apart do not a trend make, but the brain will make patterns even where none might exist. And right now my brain is saying, WTH Texas?)
Of course, writing about child abuse means having to read a hell lot about child abuse (and then writing about child abuse), and several blog posts in I'm just about ready to ragequit. ARRRGH WHY DOES THE WORLD SUCK SO HARD GRBLTHTTT
If anyone's interested in the On the Premise contest, we should totally partner up to bully each other into getting something done. You're welcome to take this subject off my hands if you like, but something tells me that material unrelated to child abuse would be better for your well-being.