Sharpen Your Knives: Three Mother Stories (excerpt) by Sharma Shields - Crab Creek Review Spring 2016

Sharma Shields is the author of the novel, Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac and the short story collection, Favorite Monster. She serves on the Board of the Spokane County Public Libraries, as founder of Scablands Lit, and as a community arts activist. Sharma lives in Spokane, WA with her husband and two children.

I’m obsessed with mothers and children lately, those roles being so central to my own life. I wanted to explore the metaphor of the woman as “witch” or “bitch” here, as well. The presence of the knives are really a way to express my terror at the thought of parenting poorly; parenting sometimes feels to me like a dangerous undertaking. I so badly want to do right by my children.