A.J. is a writer and English teacher from Chicago. He specialized in the study of speculative fiction while pursuing his M.A., and now he writes both SFF criticism as well as his own fiction. A.J. hopes to eventually put together a few booklength projects, but for now his writing is primarily restricted to short stories, essays, and the occasional odd poem. Sometimes he produces his essays as videos, and these can be found on his YouTube channel: BlueMorningStar. The rest of his work can be found collected at his website: ajrocca.com. "Mirror, Mirror" was originally published in Every Day Fiction. It is now a part of Short Édition's series, The Current.
Originally published in Every Day Fiction
There once was a glassblower who lived by the sea. In the daring years of his youth, the glassblower would pull all kinds of strange and wonderful shapes from out of colored glass. He blew neon spires that sparkled in the sun, crosses that glinted blood red, fish, and dolphins of brightest topaz-blue. Sometimes he would even make glass likenesses of the people in his village: little glass schoolchildren trailing a tall, sharp nun; glass men casting glass nets from glass boats; a fat oblong of golden glass on two stumpy legs for the mayor. The people, for their part, were much charmed by these