LeGuin's science fiction isn't the ray gun and spaceship kind; it's speculative but grounded in things we know and the ways we know them, scientific in the truest sense. And as such it is wonderfully strange, disorienting, and enlightening all at once.
My sister-in-law asked the other day for some post-Potter recommendations; my niece plowed through the last Harry Potter tome in two days, and hasn't found a replacement yet for the Potter books. I wasn't able to get into the first Harry book--I just didn't care for the writing--but I was able to rattle off a short list of my favorite fantasy series from my pre-teen reading.
This is a collection that's neither fact nor fiction, fish nor fowl, but a wonderful chimera that can swim and fly in either realm.
With simple but imaginative line drawings, a young rabbit's box-bound adventures come to life.
The camera captures the beauty and decay of the cemetery, the weather-worn statues and tombs, the words that are slowly disappearing for even "etched in stone" doesn't mean forever. What does last forever is the need for, the longing for, beauty and memory.
The characters in these stories tend to keep their own counsel; even their internal monologues leave much unsaid.
The 19th Annual Minnesota Book Awards nominees have been announced.
Nineteen (and a respite): WHATEVERLAND, Mad Media Studios, serial photogrpaher, dreamprovided, wvallen, incidence, Wiolka Kowalska, Paxton Prints, 6oh lens, kea, bea, Fourteen Places to Eat (x2), philmorris, straymatter, Mv, cpl, Million-Year Picnic, and A Walk Through Durham Township.
carte blanche pedicure, Mad Media Studios, pinkie style, BOXMAN fotologue, Aan de dijk, serial photographer, echo, lifevicarious, look-s, Absolutely Nothing, PHOTOMO, rion.nu, Photographic Odyssey
What is most striking in these stories is their humaneness: while Williams' characters are certainly as flawed as anyone else's, as given to silliness or meanness as the average human being, Williams treats them all with love and compassion.
Fourteen: serial photographer, Haphazardous, Making Happy, Broken Heartbeats, Birdman, shadowphoto, urban views, fourteen places to eat, Peacemans Pixels, LEVITATION, Wink, photosensitive, XoverIP, and .mused
Twelve: gallery(bea), Peacemans Pixels, suseu, LEVITATION, XoverIP, Diary of a Superfluous Man, shutterlog, A Walk Through Durham Township, Shutter Release, Hmmm., Small Beginnings, Mad Media Studios
Kitty Burns Florey's "Philip and Me and the Closet" is a tightly-constructed, beautifully-written essay that reflects on the power of memory and the dangers hidden in closets.
Fifteen: UrbanGhost, Mike Bradshaw, 3 a.m. from Kyoto, Micharl Marquand, luotokuva, Out of Contxt, snaps, cpl, Million-Year Picnic, Square America, fijaciones, outafocus, UrbanGhost (again)
Twelve: Express Train, BOXMAN fotologue, incidence, New Eyes, Jean-Michel Berts, a view from the 6oh lens, moodaholic, sguardo, fourteen places to eat, the daily slog, Big Happy Funhouse, and these fleeting moments.
Sixteen: small beginnings, Mad Media Studios, Express Train, Nimla, Pariscool, Out of Contxt, WetGecko, worksongs, Paxton Prints, Alain Astruc, the_gatadd_photos, mpdny, Electrolite, LEVITATION, rion.nu, 84.NET
Ten: BOXMAN, serial photographer, Photo Play, A.D.H.D., Out of Contxt, Absolutely Nothing, echo, Mareen Fischinger, Pulpo, and Jon Swainson.
Twelve: Mad Media Studios, 3 a.m. from Kyoto, BOXMAN fotologue, luotokuva, Out of Contxt, anarte.org, a view from the 6oh lens, fourteen places to eat, Aktuelle Kamera, digitalpeace, rion.nu, and Hmmm.
Fourteen: Mad Media Studios, pinkie style, BOXMAN, LONDONRUBBISH, serial photographer, Edmund Leveckis, [MeTokyo], gallery(bea), We Must Abuse the Broadband, Electrolite, Delineated.com, Jon Swainson, rion.nu, and Square America.
Fourteen: Photo Play, Londonrubbish, Pariscool, Out of Contxt, photo-effe.com, a view from the 6oh lens, gallery(bea), Fourteen Places to Eat, the streets are alive, Hungaro, PHOTOBLOGKU, Sopheava de Lumiére, and A Walk Through Durham Township (x2)
Thirteen: Jean-Michel Berts, a view from the 6oh lens, (bea), SAKANA BLOG, small beginnings, Jon Swainson, The streets are alive, optic anarchy, HELLO, Diary of a Superfluous Man, rion.nu, A Walk Through Durham Township, and Express Train.
Fourteen: mistralcolors, Clopin Clopant, incidence, lifevicarious (x2), Kéa, electrolite, Million-Year Picnic, the narrative, Reciprocity Failure, gotreadgo, Square America, Hmmm, and Londonrubbish.
Sixteen: Jean-Michel Berts, moodaholic, Kéa, Absolutely Nothing, Peacemans Pixels, LEVITATION, Photosensitive, these fleeting moments, Big Happy Funhouse, cpl, gotreadgo, .mused, pinholemedia, fijaciones, 3 a.m. from Kyoto, and Express Train
Thirteen: apparently nothing, Absolutely Nothing, Mike's Right Brain, the streets are alive, LEVITATION, HELLO, gotreadgo, a visual notebook, .mused, polom.org, boxman, Nimla, and graciform.
Sixteen: twinlens, Wood | Stone, A.D.H.D., luotokuva, Paris Cool, Broken Heartbeats, Kéa, the_gataad_photos, LEVITATION, Hungaro, Mareen Fischinger, cpl, HELLO, life is too shrot, and Big Happy Funhouse.
Mark Slouka’s Lost Lake feels more like an extended prose poem than a collection of stories. It’s an elegiac, often melancholy, and quietly moral set of interconnected vignettes, heavy on setting and character but light on plot; reading it evokes the sensation of lying in a boat gently floating in the middle of the eponymous upstate New York lake during the last week of summer, with the mind wandering over the passing season’s events: it’s timeless and subtle, and works its way into the reader’s memory one careful word at a time.
Sixteen: shadowphoto, A Softer World, Inspiration, lifevicarious, photoloukey, moodaholic, bea, Luminescent, Catherine Jamieson, Levitation, Million-Year Picnic, rion.nu, Mike Bradshaw, fijaciones, 3 a.m. from Kyoto, and Express Train.
Twelve: incidence, a view from the 60h lens, moodaholic, sguardo.org, Markus Hartel, Calebs Creek (x2), What the Sock Saw, We're All Afraid, Sara Lovering (x2), f/1.4
Five: Kéa, fourteen places to eat, the streets are alive, straymatter, and Delineated
Six: sguardo, (Bea), Markus Hartel, Hello, Diary of a Superflous Man, and 3 a.m. from Kyoto.
Fourteen: outofcontxt, A Little Piece of the World, noushin, the streets are alive (x2), Jinky Art, your waitress photos, incidence, (Bea), fourteen places to eat, echo, Million-Year Picnic, A Walk Through Durham Township, and Dead Time.
There’s enough packed into this little story for a much longer venture, enough rich backstory and characterization and that parallel fairyland to fill many more pages.
Thirteen: The "Cliche" Edition (fresh takes on some old ideas): these fleeting moments (x2), digitalpeace, snaps, gotreadgo, groundglass (x2), fijaciones, Wood | Stone, Londonrubbish, dreamprovised, Odilia Liuzzi, and 350D
Ten: luotokuva, Tomagine, Blog88:88, cpl, the narrative, Big Happy Funhouse, Takaaki Okada, Smallest Photo, Express Train, and alkos.
"Despite the popularity of brainstorming and group problem solving in corporate America, study after study has shown that these techniques produce fewer workable creative ideas than does solitary problem solving. In fact, people working alone generally hit upon better ideas than do the same people working together." - Sharon Begley, "Why Mad Scientists Are Mad"
Eleven: Photo Play, Londonrubbish, Luotokuva, imatges, Mike Bradshaw, apparently nothing, Sights by Elizabeth, urban views, Delineated, the narrative, and 84.NET
When is a restaurant review more than a restaurant review? When it's about Dana C., coolest kid at P.S. 94.
Twelve: Smallest Photo, Wood | Stone, Haphazardous, BOXMAN, Express Train, Oh Cameras Are Macho, photoloukey, Kea, (Bea), michael lynch, Pulpo, and Digital Peace.
Sixth grade has started out rough for Amalee.
Four: sguardo, Luminescent, Electrolite, and Mystery Me; short but sweet.
Eight: Noushin Blog, dreamprovised, Sights by Elizabeth, odilia, Edmund Leveckis, bastish.net, hello, and Smallest Photo.
Anne-Marie MacDonald's The Way the Crow Flies follows the arc of classical comedy, though there's very little funny about this novel.
Fourteen: A black and white collection: Mistralcolors, LONDONRUBBISH, luotokuva, Broken Heartbeats, Dimitri Chrysanthopoulos, shadowphoto, Apparently Nothing, Sakana Blog, Luminescent, Delineated, koknia, panhandlin', gerbera, and outafocus.
Nine: dreamprovised, Sights by Elizabeth, 3 a.m. from Kyoto, Express Train, Haphazardous, Point and Shoot, overshadowed, and this.vacant.sky.
Eleven: blog88:88, SAKANA BLOG, suseu, shutter~log, echo, Delineated, aktuelle kamera, digitalpeace, Hello, A Walk Through Durham Township, 84.NET
Eighteen for a Special Chicago Edition: outofcontext (x3), Exposing Myself (x2), greyscalegorilla (x2), Jamas.org, Absenter, No Traces, Take a pix, Whateverland (x2), Reciprocity Failure, Manual Exposure, Kristin Pishdadi, talcum, imstillthinking.net.
Eighteen: London Rubbish, steve damascus, Tomagine, Edmund Leveckis, Ancient Imagery of the Future, The Streets Are Alive, Noushin, My Day in London, cpl, overshadowed, these fleeting moments, uwaa, the narrative, rion.nu, 84.NET, Pshorten, 3 a.m. from Kyoto, and outafocus. (Quite a list...)
Twelve: eric nelson (Worldwide Pinhole Day), fotograf by imran, Mike's Right Brain, Out of Contxt, Moodaholic, nyclondon.com, Big Happy Funhouse, bea, A Walk Through Durham Township, fateye, Exp, and Smallest Photo.
Thirteen: shifted*exposure, luotokuva, TWBexposed, Daily Walks, 350D, Photogeny, Million Year Picnic, hmmm...(x2), Takaaki Okada, fijaciones, Jinky Art, and outafocus.
Eleven: luotokuva, daily dose of imagery, graciform, Inspiration, Alain Astruc, NYC London, rion.nu, Randomentality, Always Curious, straymatter, and phoric.org.
Thirteen: Noushin, These Fleeting Moments, Damien Garot, Mute, rvds photo, A.D.H.D., Catherine Jamieson, eterisk.org, some random shots, shutter~log, 3 a.m. from Kyoto, fijaciones, Jinky Art.
Eight: ilisu., (de)focused geeks, A Walk Through Durham Township, Tomagine, Trails of Light, myphotosquare, Electrosphere, and Million-Year Picnic.
The ten finalists for the storySouth Million Writers Award have been announced!
Eleven: Ancient Imagery of the Future, Delineated.com, Dimitri Chrysanthopoulos, echo, Electrolite, Express Train, Hello, Making Happy, Moodaholic, mHmPictures, and luotokuva.
Five: Electrolite, Sopheava de Lumiére, Tim Conner, and Photojenic
Three: A look through lens, For Jeffrey, and eterisk.org
Ten: Chris Maughan, Oh Cameras Are Macho!, Tuulelohelend, Mick Watson, Marmalade Chainsaw, Wink, Ellie Argilla, Staring at the Sun, Alain Astruc, Optic Views--whew!
Five: fourteen places to eat, Iphimeda, Blog-je, Julien Roumagnac, and Pariscool--oo la la!
I'm very grateful to see that I now have four stories on the nomination list: Pieces from Small Spiral Notebook,
I might not miss you from the Summerset Review,
Self Defense from Pindeldyboz, and
Ichthyology from JMWW.
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!
What a start! Ali Smith’s Hotel World explodes with the buzz of language and never relents.
Ten: George C. Thomas, randyman, life in mono, DMB Photoblog, toby's pics, netzkuessen.de, Haphazardous, (bea), and londonrubbish.
Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?
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?
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.
Photo challenges big and small, and why I like the small ones best.
Five: Smallest Photo, beneath the blue ocean, Big Empty, intransient, and Rooks.
Million Writers: Recap
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.
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.
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.
Seven: A Walk Through Durham Township, Moments, Noushin, the_gatadd_photos, Kristin Giordann, Rocky Arroyo, and SMLGPhotos.
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.
This is a somewhat experimental story, about points of view and parallel universes and disconnections. I hope you like it.
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.
Million-Writers-Award-Worthy: Respectful Beatings for Very Good Help
Story Time Hits: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Million-Writers-Award-Worthy: Her Babies
Some Stories I've Liked volume 1: Freeze by Becky Hagenston
Million-Writers-Award-Worthy: Thief
Eight: random thoughts, Michael Kenna (x3), Big Happy Funhouse, Big Happy Funhouse, phtoRok, and Noushin.
Million-Writers-Award-Worthy: A Happy Dream
Million-Writers-Award-Worthy: The Tyranny of the Middle-Aged Short Story Writers
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.
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.
Seven: notraces, mymonthinplastic, Broken Heartbeats, Luminescent, Broken Heartbeats, echo, heyoka
Eight: Robert Frank, EXP, SAKANA, Lumilux, Big Happy Funhouse, Big Happy Funhouse, suseu, outafocus.
Nine: Exhuasted Renegade Elephant, Elliott Erwitt, Chromasia, outafocus, alspix, képes vagyok!?, NoWords, fourteen places to eat, Keith Carter.
The Pledge: A Review
Magic for Beginners: A Review
Nine: Weirdaily, Chromasia, Hello, Squid Action, Nancy Rexroth, polom.org, Edmund Leveckis, Express Train, and Digital Peace.
Nine: Dead Time, Beyond Monochrome, A Strange Kind of Imagery, Blue Sky Kyoto, afraid of the modern world, A Walk Through Durham Township, (anothertimes), Catherine Jameson, and Hello.
Five: A Walk Through Durham Township, Matt Blackcustard, Streets Are Alive, [CK], and Big Happy Funhouse
Three: Hello, outafocus, Voxphoto
