"Love & Rope & Sex & Dreams: A Circus in Three Acts "

Originally Published in Freaks, Geeks & Sideshow Floozies
Twilight Tales, Summer 2002

Act 2 ("After The Fifth Step") was reprinted in Vigilantes of Love
Spring 2003

hen Twilight Tales put out the call for "circus" tales for an anthology, I blanched. I had just started actively participating in the group and its weekly readings, but ... I hated circuses. I dug around in the backbrain and came up with a freakshow story. It was accepted.

Then...awhile later, a tightrope story occurred to me, which bore some relation to the first tale. The editor heard me read that story at a performance, and wanted it too... and her co-editor asked for a third piece to make a trio... so one hard-thought circus tale turned into a 13,000 word long-form trilogy. In 2004, I wrote a fourth segment, about the tattooed man who joins the circus in the third story. This piece remains unpublished.

The title references my favorite BoDeans album (it just seemed to fit!) You can order a copy through Twilight Tales.