I’m very grateful to see that I now have four stories on the nomination list: Pieces from Small Spiral Notebook, my own favorite for the year; I might not miss you from the Summerset Review, a reader nomination (and my second-favorite of the year); Self Defense from Pindeldyboz, which got the nod both from a reader and from the editors of Pindeldyboz; and Ichthyology from JMWW, an editors’ nomination and probably my third (a very close third) favorite (and more in line with the direction I’ve been going lately in my writing, having spent far too much time lately in the worlds of Kelly Link, Ali Smith, and Angela Carter).
Of the stories I had published this year that meet the requirements–published on line in 2005 and coming in at 1,000 words or more–only Carabosse from Clean Sheets hasn’t been nominated. And since this story was published in an “erotic” journal, and is a bit … direct? … in tone and words, it may not be the sort of thing that should be on the list. (Though I didn’t write it as a “dirty story”–like the rest of Clean Sheet’s publications, it’s a story first, and incidentally erotic.)
None of my stories float your boat? Fine by me; I’m not always a fan of my work either. But there are some other stories I really loved that haven’t been nominated yet; I would love to see any one of these take the prize this year:
I was thrilled to see Thief by Debra Anne Davis get the nod from Small Spiral Notebook’s editor.
Still not convinced? Fine, then. Go thee forth and read; take a look at the rest of the offerings at great journals like JMWW, Pindeldyboz, Small Spiral Notebook, The Summerset Review, and all the other outlets on line for fresh fiction, and show some love. Let the world know that short fiction is not dead, but is alive and vibrant and rocking your socks off in cyberspace, The Atlantic be damned.
(I don’t really mean “damned”, Atlantic; I meant “darned”, and in a nice way; you got my story, right? I haven’t heard from you for a while, but I know you’ll like it, really I do, even if I’m not Joyce Carol Oates or Charles Baxter…)
We’ll jump and dig and build and fly
There’s nothing that we cannot try.
We can do all these things, you see,
Whether we are he or she!
The boys have been on a “golden oldies” kick with their stories lately: “Mike Mulligan”, “Danny and the Dinosaur”, the ubiquitous Curious George, and now He Bear, She Bear, one of the Berenstein Bears books. I think this may actually have been Auntie Betsy’s book–our copy was printed in 1974 — but it’s captured their interest for some reason.
Besides the bent spine and wrinkled pages, the book shows its age a bit in its content. It’s a kind of Free to Be You and Me-lite, about how gender oughtn’t hold anyone back from pursuing whatever activities they want. And, of course, it oughtn’t, though the book probably doesn’t win a lot of feminist points for showing she-bears doing traditionally he-bear jobs — fighting fires, building skyscrapers, driving trains — but not he-bears doing she-bear jobs (nursing, teaching, etc.). Still, it’s not a bad message to give to the pre-school set.
Since the Berenstein bears are a little unisex in appearance anyway, the she-bears are denoted by head gear: they all wear scarves on their heads, Rosie the Riveter style. Which gives the book, at least to me, a Socialist Realist feel with the pictures of scarved she-bears driving tractors; bears of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your do-rags!
I haven’t figured out yet why this one is on our regular reading list; usually a book gets the nod because it has interesting pictures, or catchy rhymes, or pictures of trains. This one is pretty pedestrian in pictures, the rhymes and rhythms are OK but not memorable, and there are only a couple of trains. But the 4-year-old mind is a mystery, so I cheerfully read it whenever it’s handed to me; there are worse books on our shelf.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
Woooooooo–
hooooooo what a fall what a soar what a plummet what a dash into dark into light what a plunge what a glide thud crash what a drop what a rush what a swoop what a fright what a mad hushed skirl what a smash mush mash-up broke and gashed what a heart in my mouth what an end.
What a life.
What a start! Ali Smith’s Hotel World explodes with the buzz of language and never relents. Told as stream-of-consciousness vignettes focussing on a girl who died falling down a hotel dumbwaiter, “Hotel World” owes much to the Modernist masterpieces of Joyce and Woolf, but doesn’t feel at all dated in this post-modern world.
So much of this novel is about language–about finding the words for things, losing the words for things, failing to communicate with words. But it isn’t at all a “talky” novel, nor a dry “novel of ideas”; it’s a playful and life-affirming (and word-affirming) novel, even if it does revolve around a girl and a ghost and her corpse. Smith fully inhabits the five consciousnesses we meet: the ghost herself, a homeless woman, a travel reporter, a desk clerk, the dead girl’s sister, and a girl who works in a watch repair shop with whom the dead girl was in love. (The dead girl’s ghost has to visit the dead girl’s corpse to be reminded of the watch-shop girl–apparently bodies hold memories longer than ghosts–but the body doesn’t want to remember.) All are fully realized; though the flippant betrayal by the travel writer was a bit too flippant to be believed, the characters are real and fascinating.
As an introduction to Smith’s world, there can be no better book; it’s haunting and loving and rich, and leaves the reader breathless for more.
I finally got some color film developed, just to prove that I’m not all shadow and lights and the basement sink. This week I’ll be posting some Spotmatic shots.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
An even ten this week (there were a couple more, but a few permalinks didn’t work–permalinks/liens permanent are a handy thing, fellow photobloggers, for helping spread the word on your work…). Shadows, I think, are a dominant theme in what caught my eye.
Margaree: Photos of Cape Breton by George C. Thomas: a fascinating series of black and white photos of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in the 1970s, but they could as well have been taken in the 1930s, or 1880s.
for Zsolt from randyman; a simple piece of origami made poignant as a memorial for an artist.
lifecycle from life in mono; a simple pairing of leaves and butterflies.
For this week’s Black & White Photo Challenge, I’ve dredged up an old picture: the Berlin Wall as it appeared in 1981, when I was 12.
We visited Berlin a few weeks before we left Germany; my father was a career U.S. Army officer, and we lived in Aschaffenburg for two years and Wurzburg for one. I brought my trusty little Instamatic along, loaded mostly with black and white film cartridges. (What a dandy little camera!)
What I remember most about our visit to East Berlin was how incredibly gray and deserted it seemed, except for the East German flags that were hanging from windows on all the main streets in anticipation of Brezhnev’s visit in a week. The contrast with the over-the-top flash and dazzle of West Berlin was stunning.
Not a short story, but a short film this time: Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? by Miranda July puts a surveyor in the position of asking a very uncomfortable question. How people assess how others assess them can lead to some discomfort.
This is a spare, simple film, only a few minutes long and with a cast of four. But it’s evocative, as a short story should be: who is this man giving this odd survey? Is he working for someone, or is this a private question? And what does his wife, who has him giving away oranges, think of this behavior?
If short stories are endangered by limited outlets for exposure, short films are even more so. If the story collection is overshadowed by self-help books and potboiler thrillers, what of the short film against blockbuster special effects vehicles? Show this neglected art form a little love if you get a chance; like the short story, they work on subtle, quiet levels that will haunt you much longer than the last remake of an old action flick.
Diplodocus bones at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, captured with my straight-lens Brownie. While I was taking this one, a lady approached me about my camera–she remembered having one herself, and was surprised to see one out in the wild, so to speak. I explained that the Brownie still takes great shots, so why retire it? I think she agreed.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
I’ve noticed that this site has been a bit monochromatic lately (88 of 120 pictures…). That’s because I’ve been working mostly with my toy and box cameras that take 120 film, and I prefer processing that myself. But it does make for a sort of dour presentation, even if a few of the pictures are sort of fun.
The Thursday Challenge this week is “Pink”, though, so I thought I’d take that as an opportunity to dig back into the archives to see if I had anything pink. Or colored. And this is what I found.
Pictured are Cousin Sophia (the one in the pink skirt), Jack, and Peter visiting Grandpa MacIntyre at the Willow River campground in Wisconsin. We were on our way to view the dam when Grandpa’s digital camera jammed up. The FED3, of course, never jams, even if it does sometimes leak light, break film, and misbehave in other incredibly Soviet ways. Not great pictures, but colored, at least.
I actually have some color film from the Spotmatic and FED3 that I need to get processed. I’m lazy. There will be a pause in the endless black and white, I promise.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
Have you submitted your nominations yet for the storySouth Million Writers competition? Anyone who reads, writes, or publishes short stories online can nominate one story published in 2005 for the “O. Henry Prize of the Web”. And that means everyone, right?
Previously, I’ve listed the stories that stuck with me over the last year, and I hope that will encourage you to investigate the world of online fiction and creative nonfiction a bit. There’s a lot of fresh, exciting stuff out there and, by and large, it’s free. Free and fresh–that’s a great combo, isn’t it?
This year’s nomination process is very open. Incredibly open. You can see what’s been nominated to date by readers and editors alike, and it’s a great way to discover new publications and authors. I’m very pleased to see that three of my stories are on the list so far: “Pieces” from Small Spiral Notebook, which was my own self-indulgent choice (if I don’t toot my own horn, who will?); “I might not miss you” from the Summerset Review; and “Ichthyology“, one of the editors’ picks from JMWW (for which I am extremely flattered and grateful). It’s great to see other names I’ve run across on this list, and publications that I might otherwise never have stumbled across.
The “also-ran” lists in anthologies like the O. Henry Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories are a great source of journals and writers to investigate; they’re one of my favorite parts of these publications (and, with the heavy showing of establishment publications like The New Yorker, a sign that there are still a few places where short fiction has a home and someone who hasn’t won a Pulitzer might have a shot). But this list is even better–you can click on a link and be transported directly to the story’s special world. The immediacy of the web is an incredible thing.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
Not really ectoplasm–this is dry ice vapor being swirled into a simulated tornado at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
Here’s another blast-from-the-past that has been in heavy rotation on Radio Bedtime. Danny and the Dinosaur, first published in 1958, is the story of a boy’s visit to the museum where he befriends a big, friendly dinosaur who’s good at running and climbing and being a pedestrian bridge, but not so great at hide-and-seek.
According to Jack, who usually selects this one, the best part is the dinosaur playing hide-and-seek. He tries to hide behind a gas tank and a billboard, but he’s far too big and easily spotted. Luckily, Danny and the other kids decide to pretend they can’t see him, and the game is a success.
The copy that we’re reading is one from my own childhood library. I can’t remember what my thoughts on it were; I was a dinosaur-obsessed child, so I imagine that I (a) loved the book for its subject matter, but (b) was troubled that the dinosaur was never identified by its scientific nomenclature (I used to correct my mother’s pronounciation when she read to me from my dinosaur books; she hated that…). Jack and Peter aren’t quite as bad as I was — their obsession is trains, and I dare not misidentify any of the engines that live on the Island of Sodor–so they seem to enjoy the story for its magical museum visit and dinosaur games.
At the top of the musical stairs at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, taken with a Brownie Hawkeye Flash (lens turned right way around, just as God and Kodak intended).
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
The Melic Review, one of the stalwarts of the web-publishing world, ends its nine-year run with a wonderful edition only slightly marred by the inclusion of my story “Then Worms Shall Try”. I’m not sure how long it will be around, so visit soon and take it all in.
This is an odd story, if it’s a story at all. Its subtitle is “Seven Studies in the Efficacy of Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’”; and if poetry were a drug, the FDA would hardly approve it for long-term use based on this research project.
In this age of fiction masquerading as memoir, I should perhaps make note of the memoir masquerading as fiction in this story. I was, and remain, smitten by the Cavalier poets of 17th Century England, Marvell in particular. And on two occasions, very broadly fictionalized in this story, it did prove to be efficacious (though, to be honest, I got better results from “A Room With a View” and Joe Jackson lyrics).
Truth: my wife can make a black-and-tan without a spoon. And that’s more than enough reason to marry her.
Fiction: no one has ever quoted Edna St. Vincent Milay’s “First Fig” to me.
Truth: I did find the e-mail address, a couple years ago, of a girl who said she “fancied” me when I lived in London, by reading the scientific literature on a topic that I do not understand.
Fiction: I never changed my major. I was, and am, an English major, often of the annoying variety lovingly lampooned on A Prarie Home Companion. No girl could get me to abandon Marvell or Milton or Milay.
I’ve been doing the various weekly photo challenges for a year or so now. I never take the cake, and seldom get a lot of good traffic from them (the kind of traffic that comes in and hangs around, rather than the kind that just shuffles past to the next entry for the week). But I’ve kept with them, though now I only participate if I’ve got a shot already that fits the current theme. I know that my aesthetics aren’t like those of most of the participants, and I’m fine with that; I’ve always liked blur and grain and atmosphere a lot more than digital precision and macro/micro detail.
Recently, though, I found a new weekly challenge, this one based in France, and I find it much more refreshing than the cacaphony of “me too!” pictures in the bigchallenges. B&W Challenge seems to attract pictures with a different sensibility, too, something a little quieter and subtler that invites longer consideration. Here are a few recent entries that I’ve really enjoyed:
There are a few things I don’t like about the site–it has a habit of opening far too many browser windows (I use Firefox, so I can right click and open in a new tab, that that’s a little frustrating, too), and it’s a little cluttered. But, at least until it becomes too popular (and with its focus on black & white photography, it may be spared the dilution of “me too!”ism), this is one of the best places to find new and fascinating photographers and styles.
I should also note that there’s another challenge site–Thursday Challenge–that consistently attracts high quality and fascinating pictures. It doesn’t have the voting/ranking/competition aspects of many of these challenges, and maybe that’s why the pictures are so good–they have nothing to prove.
Mix ‘n Match from Smallest Photo; I thought “Wicked Witch of the East under Dorothy’s house” when I first saw these shoes and stockings; I love the tone and the vignette.
riverflow from beneath the blue ocean; I love the color and movement.
Still incredibly cold. Though it’s supposed to reach 19°F later today–a heat wave indeed!
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
If you find yourself in Minneapolis after March 1, and are in need of a haircut, get yourself to Sassy Lu, 1304 University Ave. NE, Suite 104, 612-623-1196. Sarah Buckley, who has been cutting my hair since she worked for my sister at Juut Salonspa, is opening up her own salon.
I’ve had the same haircut since I was seven–why mess with something that works?–but as of last month, at Kelly’s insistence, Sarah has started me on a transition to “Dr. Shepherd” hair. I don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy, but I’ve caught glimpses of Patrick Dempsey’s carefully disheveled head. Mr. Dempsey is a native of one of my “home towns”–Lewiston, Maine, where most of the Hartford clan lives–so perhaps I’ve got a genetic disposition to the ‘do. In any case, Sarah has lined me up with the appropriate product (a new concept for me), and I’m doing my level best to go down this path with her expert guidance.
So give Sarah a little business the next time your locks need attention; you won’t be disappointed.
Yesterday, the wind chill was in the -20°F range. Of course, when it gets colder than about +10°F, it all really feels about the same. Your fingers start to tingle and ache after a few minutes, your lungs burn with each breath, your face feels as if someone is rubbing icy sandpaper against it. Yes, we Minnesotans are a hardy lot.
This makes up for January’s freakishly warm weather. In spades.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
This old crank phone was from the last manual switchboard party-line system in the U.S., in Bryant Pond, ME; it came out of my grandparents’ summer house. I’d like to rig it up to take incoming calls; it won’t make outgoing calls, of course, since there’s no point in picking up the handset and yelling “Hello Central!” at some digital switching machine.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award have opened for nominations. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail). The process this year is exceptionally open–you can see all the stories that have been nominated, and by whom, making it a great directory of the best short fiction published on the web.
These are some tools that used to belong to my great-grandfather, Forrie Wall, a carpenter, orchard-keeper, house-builder, surveyor, and general jack-of-all-trades from Tenants Harbor, Maine. He was the model of Andrew Wyeth’s “The Man from Maine”, and one of Wyeth’s guides to the coastal villages.
I actually met Wyeth, when I was about four; he was at Grampy’s house with one of his models, a town drunk with a bristly white beard, and I was certain that this strange man had brought Santa Claus to visit. At least that’s the story my mother told me, since all I really remember about the house in Tenants Harbor is the Franklin stove between the kitchen and the parlor and Grampy’s stocking feet propped up on it.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations TODAY. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
So–nominations for the storySouth Million Writers award have been open for a day; have you nominated your favorite story of the year?
If you’re still undecided, allow me to sway you with a few of the picks I’ve made, from my own leaky pen as well as the fine work of other writers. Remember, you can only nominate one story, so make sure you choose wisely!
Pieces from Small Spiral Notebook (and my own personal pick)
Nothing here floats your boat? Not to worry–there’s a journal online for every taste. Check the reciprocal links that the journals above proudly sport, and you’re sure to stumble onto something that stops you cold.
And this year’s nomination process is incredibly open–you can see exactly who’s nominating what–so if nothing else the process is creating a great directory of web-published fiction from 2005.
Today is the day! You can start submitting your nominees to the storySouth Million Writers award for web-published stories. Anyone who reads online literary journals (and that means everyone, doesn’t it?) can nominate one story, at least 1,000 words long, that was published on the web in 2005.
The story that I plan to nominate this year is “Pieces”, published in the Winter 2005 edition of Small Spiral Notebook. Though I’ve been lucky this year to have eight stories published on line, and two in print, “Pieces” is the one that I feel came together the best. Take a look at it and see what you think. And if that one doesn’t quite do it for you, browse the rest of Small Spiral Notebook, without a doubt one of the best literary sites around.
Once upon a time, people got things repaired when they broke: washers, dryers, shoes, cameras. Now we just pitch the broken stuff and buy new; it’s cheaper (?) and easier. And woe to us humans if we outlive our usefulness! We’re all destined to share landfill space with our cast-off refrigerators and television sets.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations TODAY. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
My penultimate plug for the storySouth Million Writers award is Self Defense, published on Pindeldyboz in the summer of 2005. This was actually the source of my first bad review (and second review ever); but while it doesn’t rise to the level of Cheever and Updike, it’s really not a bad story. In fact, I still kind of like it.
Tomorrow I’ll plug the last story on my list–my personal favorite–and recap the suggestions I’ve made over the last couple weeks. Whether or not you’re swayed by my suggestions, though, I do hope you’ll follow a few of my leads and find something to nominate; there’s a lot of great writing on the web.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
According to the rules of the storySouth Million Writers Award, eligible stories must be at least 1,000 words in length. This is an interesting requirement, given that the Internet has made “flash” fiction a much more popular genre than it was in the print-only era.
Reading on a computer screen lends itself to fits of attention deficit, so sometimes only a shouted or whispered story of well under 1,000 words can grab the eyes and mind before they click away to someplace else. And it’s easier and cheaper to dedicate virtual space to tiny, evocative pieces than it is to dedicate real paper to the same. Some of the best outlets for “flash fiction”, like Smokelong Quarterly and Flashquake, are web-only; others, like Quick Fiction, have a strong web presence. While the much-harried traditional short story is being squeezed out of print, flash fiction has experienced a flowering in the digital age.
Certainly, no one can fault storySouth for limiting the pool of eligible stories to 1,000 words or more. As a challege to the collections like “Best American Short Stories” and “The O. Henry Prize”, which implicitly limit themselves not only to print publications (and, apparently, “The New Yorker”) but to longer stories, the Million Writers Award certainly looks more credible the more like the “old guard” it appears. Still, there’s a wealth of wonderful little stories being overlooked; and because shorter is harder to write, these inelgibles may be the best of the lot.
Three stories that I had published on-line this year–Mermaid from Rumble, and Summer Reading and Haute Couture, both from Somewhat.org–fall short of the 1,000 word mark. To be honest, “Mermaid” is probably the only one I’d nominate (though the other two are fun); my goal was to come in under 250 words, and it wasn’t at all an easy thing to do.
For better examples of stories that miss the cut-off, take a look at Frost Fish by John McCaffrey and Five Minute Conversation by Sandra Novack.
Tree at Dusk from Moments; a Polaroid transfer, another of the processes that interests me.
Buried from Noushin; I love the purple sky and the mysterious lights in the fog.
Bell’s Books from the_gatadd_photos; great framing and subject.
Hotel Window by Kristin Giordano; a very Wyeth-like window.
Aileen from Rocky Arroyo; I was looking at some Brownie Hawkeye references and found this collection of Hawkeye pictures–incredible what you can do with a 60-year-old hunk of bakelite.
Walter Cuminski – Chemist from SMLGphotos; the peeling paint looks like falling leaves. After visiting this picture, take a tour of the rest of the explorations of abandoned buildings on this site–really incredible work.
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
Don’t forget–the 2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
I’m not sure what the Million Writers policy is about “dirty stories”. This story, published in the August 30, 2005, edition of Clean Sheets, certainly is a “dirty story” in some ways, though after reading Ian McEwan’s two story collections–”First Love, Last Rites” and “Between the Sheets”–I’d say it’s also rather tame.
The story came to me before the “dirty” aspects, but the “dirty” aspects were so integral to the story that it really didn’t belong in a general literary journal. But Clean Sheets is different from the “dirty story” sites that are all over the internet; it’s a thoughtfully-edited, well-written journal that happens to be about sex.
So if you’re feeling a little adventurous, take a peek at Carabosse; it might be a little something to shake up the Million Writers award. (WARNING: this a definite work-unsafe, adult-readers-only link.)
With a week left before nominations for the Million Writers Award open, I’m engaging in a little shameless self-promotion, letting you know about stories I’ve written that are eligible this year. But I’ve also listed five stories by others that I wouldn’t mind seeing win. Whether you nominate one of mine or one of theirs or a different story altogether, nominate something; web-published short fiction has matured a great deal in the last few years, and with so many of the traditional print outlets drying up the web may be the last best hope for stories.
One of the better web outlets is The Summerset Review, which has been doing this thing–publishing great stories and essays on-line for all the world to see without asking anything in return–since Fall 2002. In the Fall 2005 issue, they published my story “I might not miss you”.
This is a somewhat experimental story, about points of view and parallel universes and disconnections. I hope you like it.
At the St. Paul Children’s Museum, taken during Saturday’s “120 Challenge“. The tinfoil things were a project conducted by their 8-year-old friend Noah, who is apparently studying the Borgias–they’re Renaissance medallions, don’t dare call them anything less. And the crown on Peter was a pre-school project that he insisted he had to wear to the party. Peter has a great future ahead of him in musical theater, I think.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
There’s just a week left before the Million Writers nominations open. To give you a good starting place for making your nominations–and any reader or writer of web-published fiction can nominate for this award–I’ve listed five stories that stuck with me over the last year.
And now I’ll begin a little shameless self-promotion.
Ichthyology is my most recently-published story that is eligible for nomination this year. It’s a strange little story–it owes much to the Kafka and Link and Borges I’ve been reading lately–about gills and ponds and cleaning fish.
And while you’re there, dip into the rest that JMWW has to offer; it’s a great webzine that deserves some attention.
“It’s your fault, then?” I said. “These beatings?”
“I have a lot of ambitions,” she said.
“That’s considered honorable in this place,” I said.
“I know, I know. But I’m paid for my actualities, not my hopes.”
G.K. Wuori’s Respectful Beatings for Very Good Help is an odd story, but one that lingers. Two women from an unnamed country deal with the insanity of America–regular and bizarre beatings by a domestic employer, and imaginary nude business meetings led by a Lear-like old man who urinates on the table–and find their way through the madness by embracing it.
This will be another occasional feature, its schedule dictated by the tastes of two four-year-old boys.
Every night, I read at least two bedtime stories–Jack and Peter each get to select one, and if they’ve cooperated with the nighttime rituals (baths, teethbrushing, jammies, etc.), they get a bonus third story. This is my favorite part of the day, not just because it means that in about half an hour the boys will be asleep but because often they select very good reading material. We’ve got a well-stocked shelf that includes many of the classics and some new books as well. My father had a gig at a printer for a while, and he gave us several boxes of misbound titles; I’ve still got a few of my own favorites from childhood; and every now and again I like to splurge at the Wild Rumpus.
Pre-schoolers being what they are, we usually get into a rut: a favorite story can get top billing for a month at a time, and they never tire of it. In fact, the more familiar the better–Peter especially likes to recite the books along with me in a hushed voice. And sometimes their choices aren’t so great; if I have to read Peef one more time…
But occasionally a book ends up on the re-run channel that deserves a nod, so “Story Time Hits” will be a place to highlight these. And right now, Virginia Lee Burton’s “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel” is a box-office smash.
When people used to stop and watch them, Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne used to dig a little faster and a little better.
You probably know this story; it was published in 1939, and has remained a perrenial favorite since then. It’s the story of Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne, his beloved steam shovel; at one time, Mike and Mary Anne helped to dig canals and train tunnels and skyscraper basements, but now the new diesel and electric shovels are squeezing them out. Mike reads that a small town is building a new town hall, and he presents himself and Mary Anne as the perfect team to dig the basement–and if they can’t do it in a day, Mike says, “you won’t have to pay.”
Burton’s illustrations are wonderful, of course–subdued colors and impressionistic figures, in a style that’s readily recognized by anyone who’s read her many books. They remind me a little of Robert McCloskey’s drawings–no surprise, since they were both writers with New England ties working at about the same time. There’s something a little more playful about Burton’s drawings, though, which are clearly not intended to be realistic renderings but are just bright and busy enough to augment the story.
And the story–about an obsolete machine that does good–is appealing. When I read it, I think of my beloved Brownie Hawkeye and Argus cameras, or our old house with its charm and its flaws, and I’m glad that Mike Mulligan took such good care of Mary Anne that she never grew old.
At the St. Paul Children’s Museum, taken during Saturday’s “120 Challenge“.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
Outside Fire Roast Mountain Coffee, Minneapolis, taken with the Sawyer Nomad 620.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
Taken on East Lake Street with the Hawkeye Brownie Flash.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
Janet picked up one of the dolls, dressed in a billowy violet nightgown. She cradled it in her arm, its head against her bosom. A dull ache filled my chest, but Janet appraised the doll impassively.
Her Babies by Steven Gullion is, perhaps, overwrought, but it’s also a good old-fashioned yarn of a disturbing and disquieting sort, and embodies the “unity of effect” that Poe so admired very nicely.
In part to make things easier when next year’s Million Writers Award rolls around, and in part to do my bit to publicize web-published fiction, I’m going to start a weekly “Some Stories I’ve Liked” feature. Since stories take a little longer to engage than photographs–with the “pictures I like” list, the decision to include it is usually a split-second “wow” moment, but stories need to be digested and worried and puzzled over a while–I’ll probably list just one or two a week. Of course, the output for stories is also a little bit slower: most of the photography sites I look at update daily or weekly; the journals that I’m going to cover here tend to be monthly or quarterly.
Like the Million Writers Award, I’m going to limit myself to the sites that are like literary journals, that have an editorial process and a (somewhat) regular publication schedule. No doubt there are a lot of great stories that are self-published, but (a) I’m lazy, and trust good editors to discern what stories deserve my time; and (b) I play in this particular space myself, and I like to see what my peers are up to. Unlike the Million Writers Award, I’m not going to limit my scope to 1,000 words or more; there’s a lot of fabulous “flash” fiction on the web, a medium that lends itself to quick reads, and I don’t want to overlook it.
Freeze by Becky Hagenston, for example, comes in about 250 words shy of 1,000, but nothing would be added by 250 more words. This is an unsettling little sketch, about sins of omission and the things that we miss, and it implies far more than it says.
She waited twenty-four hours before reporting her husband missing.
In a different scenario, a man on third, with the bases loaded, can be forced out at home. After a good hit, the batter’s running to first, pushing the other base runners on. It might be that this man on third doesn’t even have a fighting chance to get to home. The catcher could reach out his glove, plop, move his foot, stamp, and just seconds after the hit, in less time than any human could run the distance between the base and the plate, the runner’s out.
Thief by Debra Anne Davis is the harrowing story of a rape and its aftermath. It’s told in a detached, reasonable voice, which makes the horror underneath it that much more terrible. I’m not sure if “personal essay” is a category the Million Writers Award covers–the rules say “stories”, so I’d think any narrative would count–but if any personal essay pubished online deserves notice, it’s this one.
Up Six vintage store, 157 N. Snelling (south of I94), St. Paul.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
I have a love-hate relationship with Steve Almond. It’s a one-sided relationship, of course–Mr. Almond has no opinion of me. I’ve been known to buy literary journals just to get his latest stories, and I subscribed to Nerve mostly to keep up with his work.
His stories are often touching and sweet beneath their exterior grit and sex and cynicism; unlike many contemporary ironists, Mr. Almond doesn’t seem to relish a world without meaning. At the same time, I often wish that Mr. Almond would grow up; there’s a brattiness to a lot of his stories that can be insufferable if taken in too large a dose. At times he can be insufferably smug.
A Happy Dream is a sweet story through and through, though not saccharine. It relies on a bit of an O. Henry twist, but it’s told so simply and without subterfuge that the reader forgives it; “A Happy Dream” might be a brief treatment for a good romantic comedy, more “Joe vs. the Volcano” than “You’ve Got Mail”. And there’s nothing wrong with a good romantic comedy.
Don’t forget–the2006 Million Writers Award starts taking nominations on February 15. Start thinking about the stories published on-line in 2005 that deserve the nod! (If you’ve got one you’d like to spotlight, let me know through a comment or e-mail).
Taken with the Hawkeye with a closeup lens from my Spotmatic kit held up to it; not nearly as good as the closeup Hawkeye shots that Tammy, a.k.a. Josie2, takes–peek at this one and you’ll see what I mean. Heck, look at all of her pictures–they’re amazing.
And then come back to look at my ongoing series on the 2006 Million Writers Award–there’s a lot of good fiction available for free on the Internet, and I hope these hints give you some ideas for your nomination on February 15.
With nominations for the 2006 Million Writers Award soon to open, I’ll be noting a story a day from 2005 that I think might deserve a nod. Remember that anyone can nominate a story for this annual award for web-published fiction; all you need to do is read the instructions and send in a link to a story you think deserves to be recognized.
For this first week of February, I’m going to be magnanimous and list stories by other writers that have stuck with me over the last year. Then I’ll give a rundown of my own stories that are eligible. Of course, you can completely ignore my recommendations and nominate something else entirely; just so long as you nominate something, and something good.
They reminded us we had our friends, our health, and bookstores filled with high-quality short fiction, in beautifully bound editions, at subsidized prices. And we had love, dammit–the love between writers and readers. The only true love there is.
This is a clever little bit of metafiction, imagining a world in which short story writers of a particular cast–I imagine students of Dubus and Carver, realist/minimalist types–have taken over and begin to deliver edicts: read O’Hara, do writing exercises, use good grammar. It’s a reader’s and writer’s story, one that hinges on knowing a bit about current fiction, but it’s told with good-natured tongue-in-cheek ribbing and lingers after the reading as a good story should.
A Flickr post by i to I sent me off on a search for Michael Kenna’s photography–I find that if I look up the photographers who are favorites of people whose opinions I respect, I’m bound to find something good.
Well, I found more than good. I found something that changed the way I think about photography, and has inspired me to either put the cameras away or try really hard to learn to see with the sort of quiet intensity of Mr. Kenna.
When I first saw his pictures from Japan, I thought “haiku”: they’re spare, stark, simple, but not at all cold and devoid of feeling the way so much “minimalism” can be. They suggest much more than they show, and invite the viewer to a calm, thoughtful engagement with the image. These simple black and white photographs are not at all as simple as they seem; indeed, having spent hours trying to emulate this style, first in the field with my Lubitel and later in Photoshop, I can attest that there’s far more to them than meets the eye.
In reading the interviews posted on his site, I found that my initial impression wasn’t far from the mark. “If I use the analogy of writing,” Mr. Kenna says in LensWork, October 2003, “I feel that my work would be much closer to haiku poetry than full-length prose. I don’t need to describe everything that’s going on. I like to just suggest one or two elements and use those elements as catalysts for my own imagination, and hopefully for the viewers imagination.”
Getting these results requires a masterful control of the darkroom. Dodging, burning, cropping–Mr. Kenna does it all to achieve these results. And, refreshingly, he’s unapologetic about transforming the negative into a work of art: “The world doesn’t conform to the way that I see it,” he says in a 1997 PhotoWork interview, “so I change it in my prints. ”
I’ve got a long way to go before I can make the world conform to my vision. But looking at Michael Kenna’s photography makes me want to wrestle the world into shape, at least on film.
The storySouth 2006 Million Writers Award, for short stories published on-line in 2005, will begin taking nominations on February 15. Watch this space for updates; I’ll be listing stories that I’ve read that I think should get a nod in the voting, and also a few stories of mine that meet the requirements.
We’ll jump and dig and build and fly
According to Jack, who usually selects this one, the best part is the dinosaur playing hide-and-seek. He tries to hide behind a gas tank and a billboard, but he’s far too big and easily spotted. Luckily, Danny and the other kids decide to pretend they can’t see him, and the game is a success.
When people used to stop and watch them, Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne used to dig a little faster and a little better.
