The Story Room, Issue 01: The Threshold Guardian

This is a Story Room post. I asked you to write about The Threshold Guardian. What stands at your door?

Aug 01, 2026

The Story Room is the room in The Heroine Society castle (yes, we have a castle and it is fabulous!) where we write together, read together and then discuss in the Salon (which really is the room where it happens!).

I announce a quarterly theme (come to the salon if you want a head start on the next one!) and you write something. Any subscriber can submit (free or paid), and then I curate a midlife woman’s magazine that you get to download and keep (paid). Or you can come to the Lives (free) if you want to hear the piece read aloud and a discussion with the author. About two weeks after the magazine launches we all get into a room together for an intellectual salon where we discuss the theme, and the pieces that struck you.

That’s The Story Room. There’s no MFA required, no agent needed, no track record to prove.

If you are a paid subscriber you can win a cash prize, and if you’re not, you can win a subscription instead, which makes you eligible next time. All submissions get a free invite to the Salon which is a paid benefit.

On the theme

I chose The Threshold Guardian because she is the most misunderstood figure in the whole heroine’s journey.

So many of us treat a Threshold Guardian as the enemy. She’s standing in front of a door we want to get through and she can be pretty scary looking. Plus she’s got an annoying Janice laugh and says things like, “you’re too old, too late, too much, not enough” and “who do you think you are?” We want to shove her out of the way and push through.

But we forget that the point of a guardian is to guard something. A guardian stands at the door and says I cannot let you through, because, right now, you won’t be able to handle what is on the other side.

I wanted to read about what happens when a woman stops trying to conquer her guardian, and instead, tries to figure out what she is protecting. The submissions went even further. In this issue there are guardians who are mothers, husbands, a colour, a jealous friend, a hospital corridor, and, in many of them, the writer herself. Nobody agreed with anybody. And that is why we need the Salon, and why it’s going to be worth your Sunday (August 16th - you’re invited to the room where it happens.)

The two winning pieces

She Got Her Hair Done, by Di Kersey. The Essay Prize.

Di’s guardian is a jealous frenemy. She heckles in italics. Her nails are ragged, “all the better to point out my flaws with.” She is petty and specific and completely recognisable. Ouch.

What makes it win is that Di doesn’t need to defeat her, but she doesn’t let her off the hook either. She negotiates. By the end the guardian has had her hair done and her nails buffed, and when Di finally hits send, she gets a whisper on the way out: well done. Til next time.

Di Kersey writes about why women archive parts of themselves, and what happens when they begin bringing those parts back. Through essays, reflections, and the developing body of work behind Unarchived, she explores the quiet ways women disappear inside lives that look successful, capable, and perfectly fine from the outside.

https://substack.com/@unarchivedwoman · @unarchivedwoman on Facebook and Instagram

If you are a paid subscriber you can read She Got Her Hair Done by downloading the magazine.

If you are a free subscriber you can hear it when I read it aloud and then chat with Di on a Substack Live on Thursday August 6th. Here’s the link!

Meeting Death, by Susan Kacvinsky. The Fiction Prize.

A girl who already knows that marriage will move her from her father’s house to another man’s adopts the runt of the goats. Her mother tells her not to name it. I won’t spoil what happens next.

The violence of this piece arrives wearing tenderness (is it real, or performed?).

The guardian here is the mother, standing at the door of her daughter’s life saying I cannot let you go through there soft.

Susan Kacvinsky holds master’s degrees in Mythology and Archetypal (Jungian) Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. She writes the Substack Modern Mythology. Her essays have been published in The Rumpus, This I Believe on NPR, Science of Mind and Underwired, and she was a semifinalist for the Norman Mailer prize.

https://substack.com/@modernmythology · @susankwrites on Instagram

If you are a paid subscriber you can read Meeting Death by downloading the magazine.

If you are a free subscriber you can hear it when I read it aloud and then chat with Susan on a Substack Live on Thursday August 13th. Here’s the link!

The Runners-up

The Half That Stayed, by Rachel Harris. Essay.

Rachel Harris is a New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels with over 335,000 copies in print. She is the host of The Joyful Rebel Podcast and the creator of Good Girl Ghosting, her name for the socially rewarded ways women betray themselves. She writes and speaks about identity, self-trust, and the quiet work of remembering who you were before the world got loud. She lives in Phoenix and is very much still in the trenches.

joyfulrebel.substack.com · rachelharrisonline.com

Mustard Yellow Makes Me Sad, by Leslie Senevey. Essay.

Leslie Senevey is a swivel-headed beauty hunter who cares about the color of everything, will do anything for fresh flowers, and learned early on how to use her words. She is the Life Lines columnist for 76107 Magazine and has been published in The Memoirist Quarterly, MidStory Magazine, and Writing: Unfiltered.

distractedbyprettythings.substack.com

The One We Planned, by Carol Oyanagi. Fiction.

Carol Oyanagi grew up as the youngest in a family of twelve. She is a writer, dancer and life purpose coach living in Minneapolis with her husband and cat. At Quiet Zeal she writes fiction and blogs about living a quiet but exciting life. She has danced on local stages, in churches, prisons and parks, and overseas in China, Trinidad and Guatemala.

quietzeal.substack.com · CarolOyanagi.com

Featured Submissions

Honorable Mentions

Every one of these women sent me wonderful pieces that are worth a read. Go and follow them.

Act II Unscripted · act2unscripted.substack.com
Debra Driscoll · substack.com/@thebehercollective
Heather Gomm · changewedidntaskfor.substack.com
Nicola Hurst · substack.com/@nicolahurst
Anne James · substack.com/@annebuchananjames
Elle Em Jaye · alifeservedmessy.substack.com
Sheri Mehryar · chaosuncorked.substack.com
Samantha Pomp · samanthapompart.substack.com
Eileen Schweickert · eileenschweickert.substack.com
Amelia Lee Sheldon · substack.com/@amelialee
Lidia Șișu · lidiasisu.substack.com
Vicki Tull · substack.com/@vickitull

What happens next

If you are a paid subscriber you can download The Story Room Magazine below…

Two Author’s Tables, live on Substack Live. I read the winning piece aloud, then I talk to the woman who wrote it.

Thursday 6 August, Di Kersey, She Got Her Hair Done. 5pm UK, noon Eastern.
Thursday 13 August, Susan Kacvinsky, Meeting Death. 5pm UK, noon Eastern.

The Heroine’s Salon

Sunday 16 August, noon Eastern and 5pm UK.

Ninety minutes on The Threshold Guardian with the writers of Issue 01 in the room. The first half hour is public. The hour after that is private, cameras on, sav blanc in hand.

You must register on Luma before we start. Registration closes the moment the Salon begins, so please don’t leave it until Sunday lunchtime.

Everyone who submitted to Issue 01 has a free pass, and it is already in your inbox. Paid subscribers come free - your coupon is below. Everyone else, it’s $12.95.

Issue 02 opens on Monday 17 August

I announce the new theme at the Salon the day before, so come on Sunday if you want the head start. Every submission gets a free seat at the next Salon, and next time it could be your name where these ones are.

LM x

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