Queer writer of weird things
I’ve been doing a lot more writing lately. I have to credit that in part to a two-week writing challenge I did recently, 1,000 words of summer, an idea by author Jami Attenberg. The challenge: write at least a thousand words a day for two weeks. There were a couple days I fell short. Most …
I really cheat when it comes to Friday Flash Fiction, don't I? The stories are supposed to be stand-alones, and no longer than a thousand words. Mine? Never seem to be either of those. Take this one, for instance. My friend ’Nathan (I mention him a lot, but he's a good friend; he's also a …
Sometime last year I wrote a Friday Flash Fiction installment titled "The Digital Corpse." It was about a detective investigating a murder in the Upload, a virtual world similar to Star Trek's holodeck. There was a twist, though: in addition to providing a playground for the living, it also offers an eternal digital existence for …
Continue reading "A story in progress: ‘The Digital Corpse’"
May is National Short Story Month, and if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I love short stories. So, I figured I would share a few that I’ve read recently that I really enjoyed. I hope you do, too. Packing, by T. Kingfisher This flash fiction piece was published by Uncanny …
Hey y'all. Did you miss me? I know I haven't done one of these in a while, but last week my friend ’Nathan posted a Friday Flash Fiction inspired by the picture below: Which got me thinking about "The Digital Corpse," the ongoing story I'd been working on in bits and pieces as previous Friday …
I feel as if I've been talking about this novel for years. I started writing it before grad school, where I ended up finishing it as my thesis submission. Since I completed that draft, I've worked on at least three other novels with varying degrees of (un)success. Every time, I've come back to this one. …
Continue reading "Read an excerpt from ‘Harvest,’ my novel in progress"
More years ago than I care to count, I dated a boy who lived in a small town south of St. Louis, in Iron County. He was sweet but ultimately we were too far apart, geographically and otherwise. Most of the time, we spent our dates in St. Louis, but one weekend, I drove down …
Continue reading "“Charlotte’s Mother,” A Story in the Saturday Evening Post"
As I've mentioned in the past and which you no doubt already know, my friend ’Nathan Smith dba ’Nathan Burgoine has done a monthly flash fiction draw at the start of every month this year. The idea is he draws cards at random from a deck to select a genre, a setting, and a random …
Continue reading "Flash Fiction Draw: Comedy, a Field of Poppies, and a Broom"
I know, I know. It's Saturday, not Friday. Sue me. (Actually, please don't sue me. Anyway, moving on.) A pre-PS plug: My friend 'Nathan's YA novel, Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks, is available for preorder, but lucky me, I'm reading it right now and I think you should totally get it. Go on, I'll wait. …
I sometimes feel as if I'm cheating when it comes to ’Nathan's monthly flash fiction draw. Instead of writing a self-contained piece of fiction, I often use these to work out a continuation of an earlier story. That's the case for September, which follows up on this post. (Which was a follow-up to an earlier …
Continue reading "It’ll Be Easy—A Flash Fiction Draw Challenge"