Foreword

Some of my favorite stories exist in the gray…  

The 3 AM questions that wake you from what was already restless sleep. The thoughts that bite down on your brain and won’t let go. The visions that keep you checking under your bed for nights on end and any number of monsters. The moments when you can’t be sure if the murky shadow figure you saw was real or imagined. 

Somewhere in-between the daydreams and the night terrors is a deep ravine of gray-space our minds can get lost in if we let them.  

TURN THE RECORD OVER (Volume One) started as an escape from the claustrophobic walls brought on by the tumultuous spring of 2020, and it became a set of writing that opened up my world from the confines of my bedroom and through the sounds of my stereo. Through various recommendations of new artists from old friends, I tumbled down a musical rabbit hole that dropped me into mesmerizing sounds and submerged me in great lyrics. 

For my first set of short fiction (TTRO, Vol. 1), I only set one rule for myself; that each song-inspired piece be oriented around one person’s story. However, this time around, Vol. 2 mixes together three topics; Terror, Travel, and Tumultuous Relationships.

So, as it goes, for the stories that follow, I went off and used the first and last lyrics of some of my favorite (and new favorite) songs to tell a different tale by setting it between those lyrics: bite-sized stories, each one of them under 2,000 words.

… It’s what I’ve come to know as, turning the record over.