Joe Totten, with his manuscript-in-progress, Some Days Are Bigger Than Others, is a 2022 New Voices writer. Congratulations, Joe.

Some Days Are Bigger Than Others is the story of an improbable 1970’s road trip. Eighty-year-old Rue Birdwell is traveling to Honey Grove, Texas with her grandson, Jim, to attend the funeral of her brother, Percy. To pass the time, Jim asks about his eccentric Uncle Percy. Rue relates the story of her wayward brother, who refused to return from Europe after World War I until there was a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean. Her story unexpectedly triggers hidden memories of her family’s violent past. Rue’s tale is interrupted when Jim stops to help Millie, a young woman whose car has broken down. But Millie is no innocent traveler, she also has a violent past. And a gun.

About Joe: Before turning to writing full-time, Joe worked as a copywriter for McCann-Erickson, a global advertising agency. In 2020, he was shortlisted in the UK for the Wilbur Smith Best Unpublished Novel Award for his book, The Law of Capture. In 2021, he was awarded second place for fiction at the Tucson Festival of Books. In 2016, Totten won the Utah Original Writing Competition for fiction. In 2019, the League of Utah Writers awarded him first place by for his story, Reserved Seats for Armageddon. Joe’s writing has appeared in The Driftwood Press, The Submittable Blog and The New Guard Review.