When first writing this piece, were the water-related metaphors and imagery planned, or did they come spontaneously?
The water imagery was partly intuitive and partly intentional. I started with the central idea of my brother’s presence as something steady yet unpredictable, and the pier and ocean metaphors emerged naturally to convey that tension. Once I noticed the recurring water motifs, I leaned into them deliberately to create cohesion and to mirror the ebb and flow of his mental health and my own experience with it.
Subtle allusions to mental health can be seen throughout the piece. What was the trick to keeping these allusions from being heavy-handed?
The key was showing rather than telling. I focused on physical and environmental details—like the pier rotting, the ice machine not making ice, the channel marker blinking out—to reflect changes in his behavior and mood. By grounding the mental health elements in concrete imagery, the piece communicates impact without explicitly labeling it, letting the reader infer the deeper struggle.
Your use of the second person point of view is very effective. What ultimately made you choose this POV over others?
Second person creates immediacy and intimacy, as if the reader is stepping into the narrator’s shoes. Given the subject matter—witnessing a sibling’s decline and navigating danger—I wanted the tension, uncertainty, and emotional weight to feel personal and pressing. It also emphasizes responsibility and closeness, the way the narrator is tethered to the brother.
You mention “the city” a few times. Did you have a particular city in mind?
The city isn’t a specific place; it’s more of a stand-in for any bureaucratic system or authority that feels indifferent or powerless in the face of personal crises. It could be a coastal town, a suburban waterfront, or any place where the natural world meets human oversight. I wanted it to feel universal rather than geographically precise.
What do you find is the biggest challenge when writing flash?
Making every word count. In flash, you don’t have room for extra explanations, so every line has to carry multiple layers—character, emotion, metaphor, tension. In Low Tide, that meant picking images that show both my brother’s struggles and my own perspective, without ever pausing to explain.
