The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son a thousand times. Of all the false echoes and random bits and pieces of broken verse and mangled axioms that were sunk into my head long ago by an Episcopal Sunday school teacher, this one was far and away the most ominous. I'm confident that some version of the line found its way into a Clint Eastwood movie or two, and was muttered grimly by Clint immediately after hawking out a black stream of tobacco juice, and just prior to putting a bullet between somebody's eyes. The sins of the father... good God. I have lain awake a few nights thinking about that one. My own father is a good and just man but he does have a dark side, not so dark as some but darker than others. I was never privy to all his misdeeds, but from the stories he told, his had been a wild and reckless youth. Maybe some payback was coming my way and I didn't even know it…

          - Will Christopher Baer

So begins an essay by author Will Christopher Baer (Phineas Poe Trilogy). Baer is an intense writer, so it comes as no surprise that his thoughts on fatherhood would be so raw and visceral.

This month, Colored Chalk examines fatherhood through the lens of sin: alcohol, drugs, murder, anger, violence, indifference, and love.

We’re especially proud to premiere “These Amber Waves of Grain” from author Stephen Graham Jones (Demon Theory, All the Beautiful Sinners), a colleague of Baer’s over at The Velvet. The inverse of sin, of course, is redemption. Try to find some within these pages.

Enjoy the read!

• Resume by Peter Schwartz
• Eyelid by Caleb J. Ross
• Amazement by Richard Thomas
• Barking by Alex Martin
• Dyan Cannon's Liquor by Michael Morey
• These Amber Waves of Grain by Stephen Graham Jones
• Two Hands, Three Options by Colin McKay Miller
• Bury Me by Edward J Rathke
• Untied by Jason Heim
• Eleven Thirty-Eight by Charles King
• Pugs by Nik Korpon

Michael Gonzalez, Issue 5 editor.