Five Star Literary Stories

… is a very cool site I’ve written about before. They invite editors of online journals, or print journals with online content, to nominate a favorite story from their archives. When a story is chosen, the editor introduces both the journal and the story, and a guest reviewer writes a short review, followed by a short bio. So you get introduced to a journal you may not know, and likely two writers as well. And it’s all about celebrating great short stories.

This month, I review Raleigh Holiday’s “Artificial Light,” a story published in Wag’s Revue.

Jen Trynin & ‘Rocks Against My Window’

As a writer I’m hardly alone in sometimes turning to song lyrics for inspiration. In part because the words are married to music and thus able to sneak past the logical mind, a lyric can attach itself like a burr without your realizing it. I’ve launched a number of stories on the energy of a song lyric, and just published one, ‘Rocks Against My Window,’ at the new online zine Metazen.

The story started with a phrase, bouncing around in my head for years, from the song ‘Writing Notes’ by Boston rocker/writer Jen Trynin. In the mid 90’s, Jen’s first CD, Cockamamie, produced a modest indie hit, ‘Better Than Nothing’ (one of the best songs of the 90s), and a good deal of industry buzz. There was a bidding war for rights to her next record, and some insiders declared her The Next Big Thing. It didn’t happen–for a tangle of reasons Jen details in her terrific rock ‘n’ roll memoir, Everything I’m Cracked Up To Be.

It’s not surprising Jen’s a fine lyricist. She studied creative writing at Oberlin, and the Boston Phoenix printed an excerpt from one of her stories. Maybe we’ll all get lucky and she’ll start publishing some. In the meantime, check out her book and CDs at her website.

Live from Tin House

The week-long Tin House Summer Writers Workshop is wrapping up, and I wanted to file a brief report before heading out on a hiking trip. It’s my fourth year here, each more than well worth it.

At the online discussion board established so students can download each other’s work and introduce themselves, the conference coordinator dubs each workshop leader with a title. I studied this year with Dorothy Allison. Her title, the Shepard, could not have been more fitting. She is tough, but it’s out of love: love for you, for the characters, for story. She’s a keen reader with an eye both for detail and for what I can only call a larger cosmic vision of where writing fits in the larger scheme.

The week juggles morning workshops with afternoon seminars and evening readings–and then all the informal stuff that makes such a conference so valuable. Highlights included, as in past years, Charles D’Ambrosio packing more challenging thoughts into one hour than many teachers might in a whole week (more on this later, sometime); Bret Anthony Johnston introducing writing exercises from his fine book Naming the World; a very good panel on beginnings (“the beginning is a question for which everything that follows is some kind of answer”); a talk by Aimee Bender on “fructification”; and a party marking the magazine’s 10th anniversary (a lifetime in litmag years) where, among other things, Steve Almond treated us to a tour-de-force deconstruction of the Toto song “Africa.”

Harold Digs His Way to China

I have a new story up at the online companion to the literary journal 580 Split (they are calling it their Webjournal). Check it out.

Normally I am not much into the story of where a story came from–my own or anyone else’s. But this is an origin story I’m fond of, and it illustrates just how little you need as a writer to be launched into a world not your own.

Having owned an independent bookstore, I am fierce about supporting them. But I do enjoy browsing the Amazon site, not so much for the reviews as for the lists. One day I was researching graphic novels, and one of the lists that came up was by a precocious high school girl who clearly felt she wasn’t get a well-rounded education at school, and so had set about putting together her own alternative education–which included everything from Classics to graphic novels. Here is her profile, which I simply could not get out of my head, and which eventually bloomed into this story:

I’m Kitty, a 15-year-old girl built for speed and eating chocolate. Dad says I have an artist’s fingers so I must create constantly. I’m not the best artist, but some of my work is very nice. I draw manga and anime for a hobby, and to get extra money I write books, but none are successful. All I’ve ever gotten are rejection letters, so if you look up Kitty W in the author search… I won’t be there.

Emerging Writers Network

A nice mention of New Madrid and my story “Call It Beautiful” in Dan Wickett’s February 20 post at the Emerging Writers Network blog. Both at EWN and Dzanc Books, Dan is a tireless champion for new literary voices, and has a particular love for short stories. He edited a recent anthology called Visiting Hours published by Press 53, another independent press doing great work.

The Short Review

This is a terrific website devoted exclusively to reviewing short story collections, and started by a friend from Tin House, Tania Hershman (herself the author of a new collection, The White Road & Other Stories–more on that later). It has a number of great features, including author interviews, links to other reviews, and a big push on buying independent. There are ongoing reviews of both current and older titles, and a blog.

I have my first review up now in the February edition of the The Short Review–of A Happy Man, by Axel Thormahlen–a book I wanted to like more than I did. But it’s worth a look, and it’s published by a Los Angeles press, Les Figues, doing some very interesting stuff.

Sotto Voce

I have a new story out in the second issue of this fine online journal. It’s called “Secret World” and is one of my Claudia stories.

A few things of note about Sotto Voce. From the start, they made a commitment to pay writers. It’s not a lot, but it’s more than a token amount, and they’ve already upped their rate from Issue 1. They also have a feature that allows readers to vote for what should be included in their print anthology. Finally, instead of the standard form rejection, they send writers brief notes from each editor/reviewer who read the piece.

Journals that show such respect for writers deserve our support. So check them out; vote for your favorite stories & poems; and order the print anthology when it comes out.

Finally, read a fascinating interview with editor Emily Thorp on Sotto Voce’s unique review process, and some very humbling number crunching.

‘Call It Beautiful’

This, my first story accepted by a national print journal, is now out and in the world as part of the Winter 2009 ‘Intelligent Design’ issue of New Madrid. (To purchase a copy, go to the Subscribe page and click the order form link: $8 for a single issue, $15 for a subscription.) It’s a terrific-looking journal I’m proud to be a part of; and their editorial staff are a real pleasure to work with.

This was one of four stories of mine presented in September 2008 by the New Short Fiction Series, and was performed by the actor Robert Standley. Here’s a taste:

Back then I walked straight by the drifters in Palisades Park, during my lunch break, or, like this day, after work. I stared ahead, taking in the long view of the Santa Monica Mountains as they sawed west into the Pacific and dragged the coastline with them. My gaze washed over these drifters: we are from different worlds, I had nothing to say to them. But I was struck by the hand-crafted oddity Thaddeus held: cedar-wood frame curved like a piano, a metal Star of David in the center. In its attention to detail, in its suggestion of a larger world, it reminded me of the architectural models I build all the time. I stopped and told him it was beautiful and asked what it was.

“You call it beautiful,” Thaddeus said, his black skin shining in the ragged shade of the palm he sat leaning against. “This is not a Work of Art for your museum gaze. It is a transmitter, for communication with the Other Beings. The same Beings Jesus left this Earth with. The same Beings who designed the Pyramids.”

“OK,” I said, setting down my briefcase, “I was just—“

“Yeah, you was just,” he said. “You was just just. You was justin’. Well sometimes just ain’t enough. Ninety-nine- and-a-half just won’t do. Wilson Pickett sang that, but it was a Gospel song first, did you know that?”

I didn’t.

“Gospel means Good News, did you know that?”

I did but I shook my head, like he had things to teach me. I sat down on the edge of my briefcase. Thaddeus challenged me with his black eyes, knees folded to his chest. Today I could take on anything, anyone. It was Hannah’s third birthday. A week earlier we found out Emily was pregnant with our second child. I was sitting in on design meetings at the firm. I was feeling the good news.

Writing Resolutions

I’m normally not much into New Year’s resolutions–but last year was a bit of a break-through year for me and it seems important to build on that. So here are some thoughts about the writing year ahead. Posting them here will impose some pressure, and who knows may be of some use to others struggling with the writing life.

• In a workshop this year, the teacher asked us to imagine what our writing life would look like if we could magically transform it overnight. A few of the things I wrote down: write more quickly, and more boldly; juggle more projects (which doesn’t work for everyone); reduce clutter, literal and figurative.
• Further explore theater. I’ve written how essential I find Susan Neville’s thesis that in every person, in every human situation, is a fault line, a hair-line crack–and the writer’s job is to use story as a wedge to force open that fault line and explore what happens next. Drama on stage & screen is a good way to hone that part of the craft: there is no exposition to fall back on, only the present action.
• Faithfully observe the Computer Sabbath (more on this in a later post).
• Network more–but don’t allow this to interfere with writing (more on that in the same post).
• Integrate writing practice with spiritual and physical practice (more on that in a different post).
• Read more. Last year was not a good reading year.
• Develop a better routine. But also play with that routine–for example, get up a couple hours early for a few days.
• Start more new work. Last year involved a lot of rewriting. So will this year. And my own production ebbs and flows a great deal–and I like it that way. But I want to push the new writing. So even if it’s just a sketch or an exercise, I want to at least start one new thing each week.
• Keep sending work out.

There you have it. Let me know your own goals.

End-of-Year Report

• First (as they say on NPR)… Let’s do the numbers: 187 submissions (mostly stories, a few poems, a monologue); 7 pieces accepted (6 stories, 1 poem; or 5 and 2, by my count); a number of things still pending (see MY STUFF for ongoing links to my publications).
• To some, these numbers might be impressive: the sheer number of submissions, a decent number of acceptances (a 3-4% rate–modest but not bad). But others will know this is simply what you’ve got to do to get your stuff out there. And writers on the Zoetrope boards report success rates of 34 out of 122; 11 out of 100–so I am sufficiently humbled. Bottom line: write, re-write, submit, re-write again. The ‘market’ is out of your hands.
• My work was performed live: four stories in the New Short Fiction Series; then a monologue in the All-Original Playwright Workshop. Having accomplished actors read my words was a new and startling experience.
• Four the third year in a row, I participated in the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, this year with Steve Almond–and can’t recommend the conference or the Candyman more strongly. As part of my ongoing studies at the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, I took an online class on rewriting with Charles Wyatt, workshopping my Kirkwood-winning story “Head in Bag” (still unpublished) three times in ten weeks: intense, and productive. I also took an online workshop given by the literary journal Mid-American Review, also well worthwhile.