This week, my podcast is the opening of a short story, a portal fantasy.
Enjoy!
The Podcast:
The Transcript:
This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for October 10, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress.
This is the opening of a (hopefully) portal fantasy short story.
Alexis Bond smiled ruefully as she clomp-stepped down the wide asphalt path of the Franklin Park Zoo. Her orthopedic boot made much more noise than she expected. Oh well. Maybe no one would notice her. She suspected not, with the spectacular light show.
On either side of the asphalt walkway, Alexis could see the normal green grass, but now, in the dark, the LED lanterns that looked like bright neon-green leaves “grew” at fantastical heights of five to seven feet high.
She passed what looked like a double-family—four adults, each with a white coffee cup, a child in a dark-colored stroller, and a couple of elementary school-age girls in white shirts and pink shorts, running around and screeching with delight. Even Alexis could see they were already sweating. Not surprising given this unseasonably warm weather, this first Friday night in October.