The Red Shoes

writing stuff I got done this year:

Finished my New Orleans novel.
Outlined smart revision for the WV novel.
Learned how to write a query (thx Steve Himmer).
Made the Wigleaf top 50.
Got 10 stories published, 3 forthcoming (11 online, 2 print)
Pimped new fiction at 2 conferences.
2 stories nommed for Dzanc's Best of the Web
Helped/encouraged/midwived 5 students get published in very cool places.
Reviewed for Short Story Month by Steven J. McDermott
VIPs on vsf blog.
Started a collection of spooky/creepy vsf.
Forced poetry friends to start publishing again.
Listened while a lot of lit scholars confided in me about their basement novels.

non-ultra

The Year in Smuction (tm Cami Park)

So I just thought this up, slapped it together. If you aren't here, it's because I'm too lazy to find you!

Also, someone help me with July, please? I'm stumped, and Erlewine (tho I love him) strikes the wrong note--

January
Fear NoBody (scroll down to 2nd piece)
Tracey Rose
Pank

February
Three Mississippi Fictions
Alan Rossi
Hobart

March
Her Parents' Bed
Jared Ward
Dogzplot

April
Snatches
Ethel Rohan
Storyglossia

May
No Means Water Balloon
Mel Bosworth
decomP

June
What Long Legs Mean
Roxane Gay
Dogzplot

July-can't find anything that isn't totally gross.
UPDATE!!! Cami Park's July choice:
I'll Book That Therapy Appointment Soon
Roberta Lawson
Zygote in my Coffee

August
Boilerplate
Lauren Becker
>killauthor

September
Drink & EBay: Bore Butter, $7 ($2.50 shipping and handling), Tuscaloosa, AL
Sean lovelace
Everyday Genius

October
Advice for Locating the Whirl
Tim Jones-Yelvington
elimae

November
The Man from Australia or New Zealand
xTx
Dogzplot

December
Delivery
Meg Pokrass
Wigleaf

day after xmas treats

Matt Bell's note about compiling a short fiction collection.

High capacity wine glass sets:23 oz for reds, 19 oz for whites, 7 oz for fizzy lifting drinks.

Doctor Who on tonight at 9, plus the Boosh dvd set.

The December Smokelong Quarterly, which I'm only a third through.

A pile of draft scraps.

Rain to wash away the ice.

Heavy kittens, light dogs.

Neapolitan Klondike bars.

Beatles on my ipod (finally!)

What's an arduino?

Morning! An arduino is a wad of electro-crap that can help you make things do other things.

Here is my version of "The Gift of the Magi": Dean ordered an arduino for Danny, and when we gave it to Danny on Christmas Eve-Eve, he accepted it graciously, but really you could see that we might as well have asked him to carve us up some wooden shoes, pronto. Dean was also put off by the item, and all the way home said things like "Good thing you didn't get me one of those!"

But of course I had ordered one for Dean. It just hadn't arrived yet. And in the mean time I'd also ordered Dean a Mandobird (seriously endorsed by Danny), an item that put me way over budget.

So I attempt to cancel the arduino order for partial correction of the budget, but the seller tells me the order was delivered already. But of course he was referring to Dean's order, as I discovered from the tracking info he sent.

It's 2pm December 24, and Dean gets up from his nap. I tell him we need to check the card to make sure we weren't charged for a thing that won't get delivered. I explain the order mix-up, and we agree that it's okay because arduinos are too tricky for Christmas. I unwrap the arduino book, and we decide to give it to Danny when he gets back from Tennessee.

At 3pm, the mailman delivers the ardino.

At 4pm, I walk through the slushy streets to buy some wine gifts at the Korean grocery near our house. Some jerk speeds right by me in a car, spraying slush and gravel up, despite the fact that I was yelling, "Hey Asshole!"

But then we went to friends for a marvelous X-eve dinner, and Dean has been trying to spin his "glad I don't have an arduino" remarks ever since.

Moral? no arduino book for Danny.

As I write this on Christmas morning, Dean is still in bed. He doesn't know about the Mando (well he probably does), so don't tell him. He doesn't know about the budget yet, either. (he probably does)

Explaining myself, Explaining my Elvis

Anne Valente interviewed me about "Karaoke People are Happy People" for the Storyglossia blog. It felt pretty good.

"37 lbs" on Staccato Fiction

"37 lbs" is one of the creepy little stories from my collection in progress. I'm so happy to have it in Staccato Fiction--the aesthetic match is spot on.

"Karaoke People are Happy People" --new story at Storyglossia

So after a 4 month dry spell, I have a new story out! "Karaoke" is another Elvis thing from my novel, Social Aid & Pleasure. I'd submitted it for the Music Obsession issue (#36), but Steven didn't think it quite fit, so he held on to it for #37.

I'm very excited. Thanks Steven and Anne!!

Mo

Molly Malone is independent, a back of the classroom genius who does weird and sentimental in equal measure. Here's her first pub, "Seal," in Able Muse.

Cough Syrup Thought

The Collagist and >killauthor will always be linked in my mind for the obvious reasons--they emerged simultaneously and powerfully, but with very different attitudes.

I don't want to go further than that except to say that The Collagist is to >killauthor as Tiger Beat is to 16 Magazine. Both are necessary. If you don't know the difference, then I don't want to know you.

A couple of close (not just facebook) friends have poems in the latest >killauthor, so go read them:Lucy Jilka and Danny Collier. I don't think the >killauthor eds were aware that Jilka and Collier have contributed to another issue together.