“Fiddle in the Middle” in The Sidewalk Diverges
“Fiddle in the Middle” is one of several stories I’ve written that was inspired by a bus ride. The two main characters were initially a pair of older women I saw on the bus at the same time–one all in white, and one all in black. Their juxtaposition stuck in my head, and I knew I needed a story about sisters who were like night and day. Over the course of drafting this story, I added a middle sister, from which the story took its title.
I love writing stories about siblings because there’s always so much backstory from which to draw. As the oldest of four kids, I’ve got years of memories of things my younger siblings did and said, family jokes, and those ongoing relationships that can range widely in terms of emotions. In my bio, I call this “siblings who bicker but love each other in the end,” which is very much the core of “Fiddle in the Middle.”
“Fiddle in the Middle” originally appeared in Mythic: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine in 2021 and is reprinted in The Sidewalk Diverges, along with other contemporary fantasy stories!
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