In the Belly

Magical Realism & Whales

A variant of this design will be the book cover for the In the Belly rewrite.

No one knows how the whale arrived in the town’s square, but the odor of rotting flesh proves to be a tremendous nuisance. It isn’t until onlookers start hearing moaning and groaning that John Lancaster is pulled from the fish’s belly. The would-be Jonah is taken to a hospital but promptly leaves and returns to the whale.

Suffering from selective amnesia, he wonders how he wound up inside a whale. And how the behemoth arrive in the center of the town. There are few clues until…

This news report served as reference material for the novel.

“Swallowed” was published in a fledgeling literary journal in 2013. The journal is defunct, but the novel based on the short story followed later that year.

photo: Todd Cravens