youareamongfriends.com
lindseymarkel at gmail.com
ljm.tumblr.com
True things about:
I write mostly short stories these days, but I was writing on the internet alongside the dinosaurs.
I also wrote the book You Are Among Friends: Advice for the Little Sisters I Never Had, which is a self-explanatory title.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
A belated thank-you to Mr. Tim Frazier, my sixth-grade reading teacher
I tried to write a letter to Ray Bradbury last year. It began, “Dear Mr. Bradbury, my name is Lindsey Markel, and this is the first fan letter I’ve ever written.” I wanted to tell him how hearing “The Veldt” read to me in sixth grade changed my life in a way that was undetectable at the time. I remember my teacher, Mr. Frazier, shuddering at the end, encouraging us to sink deep into the uneasiness of the story the same way he did each time he re-read it. Later that same year, my dad and I stopped at a thrift store after church one Sunday and I spied a paperback copy of The Martian Chronicles in the used book bin. Ten minutes later, I was sitting in my dad’s parked pickup truck as he ran a farmer’s errand, reading about the people moving to Mars, the strange weather and the yellow skies.
I couldn’t finish my letter. Fan letters feel embarrassing and clunky by nature; despite my best efforts to be personal and transparent, my letter fell into a cliché formula. And furthermore, after reading what I’d already written, I realized that Mr. Frazier was the one to thank.
