Hello, readers!

Summer (well, my kid’s summer vacation) is in full swing. My spouse, kid, and I are fairly recently returned from Alaskan cruise with my parents for an early celebration of their 50^th anniversary.

New story: “alleles” in Adventitious

While I was traveling, the June issue of Adventitious went live for purchase! You can catch the whole issue here: https://www.adventitious.net/product/adventitious-issue-three-june-2026/

And as of June 18, my flash story “alleles” is free to read! https://www.adventitious.net/stories/alleles-amanda-helms/

Summary: A woman is caring for her mother whose face is now a swarm of ants; the ants are actually a metaphor for dementia.

As the summary implies, it’s not a particularly happy story. Mind the content notes if you’re in a sensitive spot with regards to elder care or dementia. Or if you get squicked out by ants.

Story impetus

This story began its life during the 2026 iteration of the Weekend Warrior and Bard event from the online writers’ group, Codex Writers. The premise is to write a maximum 750-word flash story over the course of a weekend. Prompts are provided.

The one I used was about misheard song lyrics, in my case, Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”, which apparently people have heard as, “These ants are my friends, they’re blowin’ in the wind.”

The ants in my story are not blowing anywhere, and they’re not friends; they’re stuck in a swarm on the narrator’s mother’s face, and the narrator feels that the more ants appear, the more she’s losing her mother.

Why the title “alleles”? That’s getting into spoiler territory, but if you know what alleles are, or even look up the definition, you can probably guess.

“OK, but why that?” or, Musings on mortality; skip to the next picture if you’re not up for such

How did I get to all that from a misheard song lyric? I’m not wholly sure. Dementia is not in my family history, thankfully, and as indicated in the beginning of this newsletter, my parents are alive and well, capable of embarking upon and largely enjoying a cruise.

But I am of an age where I’m right on track to be considering my own mortality; a childhood friend of mine passed on not too long ago, and I have extended family and friends whose own parents have passed on as well. Also, while dementia isn’t in my family history, cancer is. I don’t think about these things constantly, but I would definitely say they hang around in my hindbrain.  

I’ve said before that one of the things I love about short fiction is how you can pick a theme or something that’s bugging (heh) you, focus on it for the duration of the story, and then move on. I think this is letting me process some of those “Remember that you will die” feelings.

Yet as I was fortunate to be reminded during my vacation, there can be a lot of beauty along the way.

And now, for a bit of housekeeping

I never committed to a regular schedule with this newsletter, but I’m considering aiming for one. I feel like it might allow for a better balance of what I want to do regarding providing book recs/”what I’m reading” updates while also linking the short fic I have out, and eventually cough doing all the “Preoder my book!” then “Buy my book!” and maybe eventually “Come see me talk about my book or other topics as assigned stuff!” if it comes on a set schedule, with typical sections in the newsletter.

Only I don’t know if I can be that committed to a schedule. But to paraphrase Bart Simpson, “I’m thinking about trying to try.”

Just thought I’d provide a heads up of what might be coming.

Till next time, which may or may not be in another month, happy Juneteenth! No one is free until we all are free.

-Amanda