Welcome To My Writing Website

Here I will share bits about my current projects, ideas in development, and details about my process. I may even throw in a random thought or a cartoon or two just for fun.

My stories are snapshots into the interiority of everyday people.

  • Short Stories

    My sister Katelyn is singing Landslide from top to bottom, over and over, as we walk alongside the empty two-lane road after a full day of swimming at the lake. We’re almost home when a gust, hot and sudden, spins the dirt beneath our feet into a miniature cyclone.

  • Flash Fiction

    Getting home to plow through the yard work before the heat’s snare grabs hold isn’t why I cut into my sleep for an eight a.m. alarm. Mowing sweaty and shirtless doesn’t scare me. That’s what showers are for. Not finishing in time to plop my butt on the couch and enjoy an ice-cold gin and tonic made tart with the limes I’m fixing to buy before opening pitch at noon; now that makes me shake like a five-year-old in a Halloween fun house.

  • Poems

    Her lips sink into the absence of her teeth.

    She doesn’t care.

    She smiles at us anyway.

    Proud.

    Friendly.

About Me

I live outside Seattle, Washington, with my human and animal family. When not writing, I spend time gardening, photographing the Pacific Northwest, and creating graphic and six-word story tee shirts.

My work has appeared in The Lake, 34th Parallel Magazine, Sad Girls Literary Magazine, Ignatian Literary Magazine, OJA & L Magazine, Front Porch Review, Five on the Fifth, and Panoplyzine Magazine as the Editors’ Poem of Choice. I have work forthcoming in Crab Creek Review, Luminal Journal, Spry, and Figwort.

You can find me on Instagram at @vawiswell or visit my blog at https://thehowtoblogforwritersandartists.com. You can see my tee shirts at https://www.fancydonkey.com/