Let’s Play

It has been far too long. I promise that will be the last time I write that on here. Fortunately, I do have things to say.

Mostly, I’ve been writing for myself. When are you not, you might ask. Well, let’s be more specific: I have been writing in my notebook and none of it has been fiction or poetry. It has been purely for cathartic purposes. Not a shooting up, but a shooting out. If I don’t get a euphoric sparkle or some kind of cleansing, I don’t bother with my scribbling. I throw my pen like a dart at the window.

Book food has been taking up most of my time. Look here for a sample. There is music and movies too. My body wants to consume rather than create. The hunger will pass, and I’ll be back to throwing things up instead. Eat desperately, regurgitate. Repeat.

I got my contributor’s copy of the newest issue of Pear Noir!:

Pear Noir!, Issue 9

Pear Noir!, Issue 9 Contributors

I had a poem in it that I’m still fond of. I always wonder how long that feeling will last. It’s also a poem that my family appreciated. This is a momentous occasion. I’m no longer a teenager, but I always feel like an enigma to them. My mom reminded me of how I’ve taken to using more personal writing as fiction. It’s not real, but she knows where it comes from.

I also received these postcards from some of the writers:

Pear Noir!, Issue 9 Postcards

Over at ReadLearnWrite, I wrote about newer ways we are telling stories. It got me thinking again about how publishing is changing, how our storytelling media are changing, how we are all responding. It can be both exciting and confusing; perhaps the best time to get messy and experiment. Want to make a video game? Go for it! The tools are right there. Want to create a fictional diary through Youtube videos? What’s keeping you?

More experimentation: In just a week, I’ll be flying out of Florida to see my significant other. I’ll be vanishing off the map even more cleanly than usual. Perhaps you don’t know this already, perhaps you do, but I am somewhat of a recluse. I feel like a baby who doesn’t know anything outside the nest. This is new and exciting, but I’m not nervous. I don’t plan on turning my relationship into a character for you to read. This is not my notebook, and I don’t want it to be. My wings are still wet and lack the muscle.

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Carousel #17

  1. There is a documentary about writers and what they define as “bad” writing, called Bad Writing. You can watch it here for free for the entire month of January. Give it a watch! Featuring a lot of different writers, including Margaret Atwood and David Sedaris.
  2. Want to know the specific name for practically every group of animals? Have a huge collection of collective nouns. The English language is indeed strange. A charm of hummingbirds, a parliament of rooks, an aurora of polar bears. Got to love it.
  3. Via Paper Darts, here are the most beautiful book covers of 2012. Really gorgeous. I can’t even decide which is my favorite.
  4. Via Flavorwire, the most anticipated books of 2013. Thirty of them, at least. Thirty is enough, as far as I’m concerned! I really wish I could keep up.
  5. The visual history of The Bell Jar‘s book covers: here.
  6. I don’t know how to feel about this quite just yet, but we are going to have our first ever bookless library. Based in Texas, the project is called BiblioTech and is being specifically designed for the digital age.
  7. Exciting book excavations! A man from London found a signed copy of Frankenstein in his grandfather’s library. Apparently it is only the second signed copy known in existence and it went on to sell for more than a half million dollars at auction.
  8. Writers’ Tears, an actual Irish whiskey. Should we be surprised?
  9. What if dead authors were forced to use social media? Here is an idea. I don’t know about you, but I’d be the first to follow Truman Capote on Twitter.
  10. Here are writers reading ten stories by Sherwood Anderson.
  11. Memorable writing I enjoyed reading this week: Girl/Box and Impact Sight and Our Bodies, Possessed by Light.
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Preemptive Strike

If you hadn’t noticed already, I’m able to cross off one of my little resolutions from my list: blog makeover. I think it came out nice. New theme, but I decided to bring back the chameleon. I’ve missed my old mascot. I’ve also been devouring several books at once, so I updated what I’ve been reading too.

I’ve finally joined the e-reader generation. I received a Kindle Fire for Christmas. Maybe it will force me to read more of the classics now, seeing as they are so readily available. I already plan on reading as much Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton as I can. As much as I like having beautiful new books in my hands to touch and smell and hug, this is a nice alternative. I can see why people enjoy both, really. Sometimes, when I can’t fall asleep, I’ll get my Kindle out now and read in the dark until I can.

I have a new story up at the Rose Red Review and you can read it here. It’s called “The Loudest Lullaby,” and it is one of the strangest things I’ve published so far. I was trying to describe it to a friend the other day but stopped trying mid-sentence. I remember saying something like, “a surreal dystopian fairy tale.” I guess we’ll go with that for now. It is about a mother and her child, in a world that is crumbling and suddenly mixing its colors in unexpected ways. Writing is also very important and one of the few things that makes the mother feel safe, but it is against the law.

I also have a poem that I’m oddly proud of, “Dolphin Therapy,” that is going to be in the newest issue of Pear Noir!. Very rarely will I say things are great, but I am really excited about this. You can pre-order your copy here. From what I’ve heard, it is supposedly going to be one of the most interesting issues too.

We’re off to a good start.

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