Author’s Note: If you’re a steady reader of this blog, you know I worry about writing in obscurity forever. It’s been suggested I raise my profile by publishing more outside of my blog and NCR. Even though I’m behind on the essay a week challenge (I think #52Essays2017 is now in its twenty-second week), I write and/or revise all the time—and I expect that work to be rewarded with my byline in some of my dream publications. Most places, however, only accept work that’s never been published anywhere else, even on a personal blog. So as I send out more pitches and complete essays, I have to pull back from publishing them here. But I do want to keep you updated on what I’m working on, so this week, I’m starting a new feature: #SneakPeaks. These will be a line or sentence from something I’m working on or have completed and sent out elsewhere. If they are accepted for publication, I’ll drop another post on this blog with the link.

This week’s Sneak Peak is from an essay I haven’t completed yet. The essay started out as something completely different, but life comes at you fast, so the essay has to change with the circumstances. I’ll be rebuilding the narrative based on this epigraph: