Captivity

That could be the theme connecting my two stories in the current issue of Lawrence Magazine.

One story profiles Natalie C. Parker, whose debut novel for young adults, Beware the Wild, came out last month. The Southern Gothic tale sucks in the reader much like the killer swamp at the heart of the story sucks in unsuspecting townsfolk.

The second story looks at the short, artistic legacy of German POWs held in Camp Lawrence on the banks of the Kaw. Seventy years later, some pieces of their handiwork remain in local homes, museums — and the really big one, Danforth Chapel on the University of Kansas campus.