“The Awakening of the Empath,” a story by re-emerging writer Patricia Anderson, was published at Altered Reality magazine.
From the author:
“This story began as a response to attending a baby’s funeral. I needed to express a crush of dark feelings. Eventually it reoriented from creative nonfiction to fiction.
Initial response to my query letter (my first) was tepid. She offered to look at it anyway. The response after reading: ‘okay, that is very much a different take on a well-worn trope. Kudos. it’s not often I get handed a theme that’s been so overused and have it hit me like a ton of bricks.’
That was my first ever ‘ton of bricks!'”