I'm still reeling about how bad Imperial Bedrooms is. I hope Bret Easton Ellis never writes another novel. That said, everything else he's done is brilliant, but I think he's worn out his welcome. I'm just appalled. Yuck.
A while back many of you might remember me saying I couldn't write short stories anymore, and wouldn't try. Well, here I am, with my foot in my mouth. I've been writing a lot, and I'm slowly approaching enough material for a collection of Magical Realism stories. Right now, I have about 15 stories. Some are really really short (1-3 pages), some are medium (6-9 pages), and only a couple are longer. All of these, with the exception of maybe 3 have been scribed recently. I have a story about a boy and God (who looks like Bowie), I have a story about a forest that grows in someone's home, the hands story, about a man who turns into a dog and becomes a better husband, one about a live woman under the ice on a lake found by boys, one about wolves terrorizing a family, one about a dude who kidnaps a sitcom star and keeps her hostage in a curtain of living vines, a heist of sorts, a story thief except, and more. They're weird, but strangely easy to write. I just find myself wanting to steer from the real of a scene and go absurd and even ridiculous. And magazines seem to be interested, I've published mostly MR stories (only one realist story ever). So, here I am, still "into" short stories. I blame two people: Ian Denning and Robin Romm. Her book, The Mother Garden is still fresh in my mind, and I read it in May or June. And Ian has written so many fantastic stories with fantastic ideas that I either want to steal from him (and have) or try to find something just as cool...don't worry Ian you will be a main part of many of my acknowledgement pages.
In early January I met up with former profs from Las Cruces. It was great to see them. They briefly tried to convince me to go back. Truthfully, there are things I miss, especially the people. Though I know it isn't the right place for us. But it's great to know that that year we spent in Cruces gave me some friends that will be long lasting. Plus they visit Chi-town and Seattle every year.
I'm taking a Break from my poetry projects ( and letting Chas go to town on our project). I'm gonna go into trying to organize and revise This is the Way to Rule. Thanks to my friend Barry (who majored in Musical Composition at U of Idaho), I'm organizing the book as a symphony in four movements. I dropped this idea for a while, but after talking to him, I know I can do it and it will be the final book in my trilogy of performances-in-verse. I'm excited. It will no longer be prose poems, though there will be sections of those. I will be experimenting with form and structure of poems, which will be fun, and something I don't usually do.
Reading Beasely's The Corpse Flower. So Good.
Submitting like shit, Talking to Ian about it. I have so much stuff out it's ridiculous. Ian and I have been suggesting journals, talking about them and their editors, and reading them. It's nice to have a partner in crime. Thanks Ian.
So many films to see, so little time. Still haven't seen Potter 7 part 1. Ugh.
Expect another SOON!
Love,
J.
3 comments:
I need your submission magic. GIVE IT TO ME!!!!!
It is nice to have a partner in crime. I talked to a bunch of my UNH fiction colleagues about submitting and realized they didn't know shit about anything. They were like "Wait, what should go in a cover letter? What's a simultaneous submission?" Three cheers for us! We're the best! We're the best! We're the best!
Man, I'm missing movies too. Still haven't seen Black Swan or True Grit.
I want to design a course called "Submissions and Applications" where the semester is spent either submitting apps to programs (And all the prep work) or Submitting to journals. The trick would be the research, the why of it: why are you submitting to Ninth Letter? Does your stuff fit, etc...books would be journals...
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