Bad Habitats

Something was eating something, messily, on the other side of the creosote bush, and Raven hopped to the top of a cactus in quick panic as a mean-looking dog brought his teeth down on the half-dead rooster. Three or four more of last night’s losers lay dismembered and scattered in the gray morning light, blood and bronze and iridescent green feathers bright amid the rocks. A nice way to earn a living, that dead gallito was right. Raven felt weak from her bad night, but calm, more grounded than usual, ready to decide some things. She spotted the rising equinoctial sun off her right shoulder and set off for the north.

PRAISE

“Good stories destabilize a reader’s view of the world. And when this happens, the experience is exciting and mystifying. Bad Habitats is just such a remarkable read. Startling in its ambition and stunning in its achievements, the amalgamation of the animal and human leaves us with serious questions about who we think we are and who we want to be.”

– Dana Johnson, judge of the 2012 Fiction Chapbook Competition

Alisa Slaughter has published fiction and creative nonfiction in several literary journals, including Santa Monica Review, The Missouri Review, Natural Bridge, Alimentum, and SundaySalon.org. She lives in the mountains of Southern California.

Book design by Rebecca Abbe.                            

LINKS/NEWS

Excerpt in Ghost Town

Review in The Ampersand Review