I’m bored already. I don’t want to hear a story about a school. I’m sick of schools as places where stories happen. Muggles or non-muggles. I don’t care.
Once upon a time there was a high-school.
Worse! I don’t care about what goes on at some stupid suburban high-school or some stupid rich kids private school. And I for sure DON’T want a story about some inspirational white person who is middle class and who “changes the lives” of the poor underclass persons who are not like that inspirational white person. Freedom Writers! Argh!
Once upon a time there was a university.
Ugh. Nothing even happens there except – in the olden days professors and students used to hook up. But that was boring too. So no one does it any more.
Once upon a time there was a medical school.
Wait – are there dead bodies in it?
Once upon there was a laboratory at a research center.
Seriously? No way, not unless something blows up!
Once upon a time there was a shopping mall that was the only structure that survived an unnamed global disaster.
Stephanie Barbé Hammer is a magical realist prose fiction writer, novelist, occasional essayist, and a committed, intermittent poet. A 6-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize she has published work in Hayden's Ferry, Pearl, CRATE, Rhapsoidia, NYCBigCityLit, the East Jasmine Review, Apeiron, Inlandia, Literary Alchemy and the Bellevue Literary Review among other places. Her novel _The Puppet Turners of Narrow Interior_ appeared in March 2015 with Urban Farmhouse Press, and her Narrow Interior novelette, _Rescue Plan, appeared in February 2021 with Bamboo Dart Press. Her poetry collection _How Formal?_ was published in 2014 with Spout Hill Press and her prose poem collection _SEX WITH BUILDINGS_ was published in May 2012 by Dancing Girl Press. Stephanie flunked early retirement at the University of California Riverside and is currently feeding her teaching love at Edmonds Community College, Hugo House and the Inlandia Institute. iShe is currently managing editor for SHARK REEF literary magazine and is working on two new novels, and two new poetry collections, Her manual on how to write magical realism _Delicious Strangeness_ is available from Spout Hill Press.
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