the eyes have lasers in them!

My husband made a wooden mallet today. He also disassembled a remote control dinosaur. But not with the mallet.

In other places we have discussed the bullshit of “process,” but as I’m coming off a successful revision—if our mallet wielding dino dissector is credible— the how of it is very fresh in my mind, and I kinda want to nail it down.

The problem was intention. The original idea came from a scene in my WV novel where the main character is in her remote cabin, and she’s freaked out by a late night trespasser. From there I was shaping something fairly conventional—a story of transformation that to fit into my spooky vsf project. The draft, having outgrown flash, teetered into Poe-like Gothicism. On those terms it needed more rational development.

Like a mercenary I started writing the linkage, which was easy-peasy. When I write fast without breaking an emotional sweat, I always think I’m phoning it in. But very often that writing turns out to be my best. And sure enough, one day later I reread the work to discover that the craven linkage was more clear-eyed and dramatic than any of the original work.

So I threw out most of the old draft and re-built from the linkages (now free from plot servitude). I think I ended up with something much cooler than I planed for. Editors? Start your bidding now. (I always make that joke).

creepies

hmmm. so far I have seven creepy vsfs, a few in better shape than the others, but I'm happy with the cross chatter amongst them, and I'm not bored yet, either. The piece that may or may not be coming out in Wigleaf (if technical challenges can be resolved) is currently acting as the control personality against which alters react or cope.

It's good to have several of these pieces not really nailed before I move onto other ideas in the series. That way I can resist sending them out. If these stories accumulate into a collection, I want them to depend on each other, and I think I want most of the material to be "new."

Frame of mind: very Nick Antosca, but not as juicy

Let God sort 'em out: tired and pale, or tan and naughty

Read Erin Fitzgerald's stories in Pank. Now.

Like FRiGG, Pank posts sets of stories by a single author from time to time. I like that? Sometimes not. Erin's set rocks, leaving you with that feeling that you have finally read an effective ghost story. (They aren't ghost stories)

And in other news, Dean points out that the poetry in >killauthor is pretty oogie stuff. Lotta vomit and surgery.

New story up at >killauthor # 2

The Pinter issue, which is awesome. I know everyone else is drooling over the debut of The Collagist, and they should, but when you're done there
check out "The Elvis"

That's right. Elvis. This Elvis comes from my Louisiana novel. This thing was brilliantly edited by Meg Pokrass, whom I LUFF.

In the issue with amazing folks:

Ben Spivey | Donald Illich | Emma J. Lannie
George Anderson | J. Bradley | Jesse Tangen-Mills
Jimmy Chen | K. Walker Graves | Lauren Becker | Laurie E. White | Luke Drotar
Nate Innomi | Peter Schwartz | Roxane Gay
Sam Pink | Sarah Layden | Stephen Daniel Lewis
Steven J. McDermott | Vaughan Simons
William Walsh

Rocking Monday, New stories in PANK

Just got back for a hedonistic weekend in New Orleans, which makes the publication of two new stories in Pank even sweeter. Ethel Rohan has a great one in the same issue as well.

eh, what do I know?

After the AIW/Mason Fiction Seminar last Sunday, Art Taylor interviewed me about some of the stuff I had to say about net publishing and the evolution of short fiction. It was fun.

required reading

I'm showing the wigleaf top 50 to my juniors to start the semester off. This is my 2nd time doing this. My students are enthusiastic about the form and technique on display, but they are not all on board with content, which is to be expected. They want The Funny. They want surrealism in heavier doses. They want Happy Sex if there's gonna be any sex at all.

But there was a lone voice complaining that the pieces were too literary, and that art was more important than honesty in the collection. I'm convinced the student was reacting to unfamiliar uses of compression and voice performance, or maybe the student resists lyric fiction in general, but we'll see. After class, I was delighted to discover Piers Marchant's "Deserve" just posted at WL. Piers' story is an example of a brief fiction that is rich, detailed, and unhurried. The entire arc is present, and the narrative unfolds with the measure and tension we come to expect from a longer, more conventional story. But more interestingly to me, Piers' story does what it does elegantly, without use of magicians or nostalgia for adolescence. It does feature the Sad Sex though.

New Story at elimae!

Render, or to transmit to another
(contest: where would you place the word 'dewy'?)

massive issue with massive people--I'm pretty thrilled and can't wait to read it. but I may have to wait--the holiday is imploding. Mom in hospital, low enrollments, the tax document is hinky ($800 for a title search? really?), and we still haven't worked out the in-law visit.

oh happy sunday

I just learned that I'll have a piece in the December elimae

Very Short

I love reading flash. love writing it. But I have zero idea of what I’m doing or what’s good when I’m done. Every time a flash of mine is accepted for publication, I’m stunned.

and no, I won’t read a book about how to write ‘em. However, I might read a flash about how to write flash . . .

My latest technique, and it’s a deeply flawed one, is to watch the blog discussions and try to write with a particular editor in mind. It’s a decent start gimmick that inevitably unspools and gets away from me, and I’ve never sent the finished work to the editor I had in mind.

My flash confidence is in sharp contrast to my confidence in my conventional short stories. I know how to build those, finding the biggest challenge is making them interesting to me. Once I have my own attention, I tend to be able to place the story in a nice home.