Have you ever driven up the California coast from San Luis Obispo to Monterey, knuckles white on the steering wheel as you fight for control of the car through hairpin curves? Have you ever dreamed that you had murdered someone and, upon waking, been unable to shake the conviction that it was true? Have you ever sung onstage to a packed audience, been robbed at gunpoint by a ten-year-old, laughed when it seemed— for a moment—that a famous author had stolen your mojo, wondered why we don’t drive steam-powered automobiles, or confronted your guardian angel at high tide on a gay beach once claimed by Pilgrims ? In What I Say Instead of Nothing, James Brega invites you to explore his real, imagined, and re-imagined experiences through his collected essays and short stories—a journey that will feed your nostalgia for life at the end of the twentieth century and remind you how desperately you wish that a great deal of it had never happened.
It’s unusual for me to write fiction, but the idea for this atmospheric tale, “A Letter to Anna Bell”, came to me one morning after awaking from a dream much like the one in the story. What better place for it than a journal called Haunted Magazine?
Note: Haunted Magazine is no longer being published as of May, 2014. You can still read my story at the link above.
James Brega: What I Write Instead of Nothing 