<![CDATA[HOLLY LYN WALRATH - Stories]]>Tue, 12 May 2026 03:58:03 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[Restoration]]>Wed, 03 Apr 2019 20:07:55 GMThttps://www.hlwalrath.com/stories/restoration
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On the day the saints remove their habits—shedding black veils, letting their long locks free in sheets of amber cotton or untamed tangles of black, twisting around heads like halos—on that day, the flower man comes.

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Fairy Tale, 495 words, first appeared 2017at Remixt →
]]><![CDATA[Confessions of a Tree Nymph]]>Sun, 24 Jun 2018 17:13:51 GMThttps://www.hlwalrath.com/stories/confessions-of-a-tree-nymph
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​In the tree world where I live, trees are not substantive. Instead, they are doorways, two oaken lines with a dark, sparkling maw between. When I step through, I’m in the tree world, my world.

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Fairy Tale, 936 words, first appeared 2015 at 365 Tomorrows →
]]><![CDATA[Mermaid Hunt]]>Mon, 14 May 2018 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.hlwalrath.com/stories/mermaid-hunt
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When hunting mermaids, it’s best to keep your rudder close and your first mate closer. 

That’s why Captain Marda allows these brief nighttime trysts with Barth. Barth lays his stubble against the smooth white of the place under her collarbone, and she keeps the map open on the communicator. He whispers things like, “fins like gold” and “seaweed hair” to himself, into her thighs, and she watches the dot of their sub blink across the blue screen.

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Fantasy, 936 words, first appeared 2015 at Pulp Literature →
]]><![CDATA[The Joy of Baking]]>Thu, 01 Mar 2018 06:00:00 GMThttps://www.hlwalrath.com/stories/the-joy-of-baking
The Joy of Baking
​It’s amazing how much easier it is to bake a cake when you’ve got an eternity to get it right. The secret to effective baking is patience, followed by the ability to fold the batter with a metal spoon instead of rushing in with a wooden spoon like a hammer. The folding in must be gentle so as not to break the hard-earned bubbles of air. Lastly, a baker must have the willingness to guard the oven, your feet cold on the tile, letting the warm scents of butter and vanilla envelop you and seep into the whole house, holding your breath while the batter rises, goldens, and browns slightly at the edges.
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Fantasy, 2,436 words, first appeared July 2017 at Luna Station Quarterly →
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