It'll be a while...

I'm getting married on Saturday. Yippee!

That's all.

Therefore, I won't be around for a week or so with the honeymoon and all.

Consider This the Bumper

Here is a piece of "Red Truck." Again, not married to the title. Consider this the bumper. With my wedding coming up quickly (just over a week now) writing has taken a bit of a back seat. Enjoy and let me know what you thought of the ride.

The day the red truck arrived I was too tired to care. I had been at work, unloading new reams of fabric since 8 a.m. Two customers forced me to waste a total of thirty feet of cloth because they couldn’t make up their minds. The blonde girl said she was student at the nearby design school. I know more about fabric than she ever will. All in all it wasn’t too bad; Jay came in.

...

The next morning I awoke to the smell of coffee wafting into my bedroom. Sometimes I imagine waking to find a man, shirtless and in pajama pants, in the kitchen pouring a hot cup and saying, “I was just about to bring this to you.” But really I had set the pot’s timer for 6:30 a.m. I poured a cup for myself, topped it off with heavy cream and sat in front of the television for my morning dose of news. The weatherman promised snow for my area starting that night; it could total ten inches over the next couple of days, he said.

HELP!

What do women think when they are excited about someone? What does a crush (unspoken) feel like in a female mind? I'm trying to write from a female perspective and it isn't easy. Any suggestions or insights would be helpful. Thanks.

Busy

Sorry that it's been a while since I've written on here. I am getting married to a wonderful woman in less than three weeks and the planning is keeping me quite busy. On top of that I'm moving into her place with her.

Last Thursday I met author Benjamin Percy. He is a tremendous modern, young writer and I recommend his short stories to anyone looking for a good read. I went to a reading he did. I had never been to a reading before. Definitely an experience, one that you should not pass up.

I'm taking a step back from "Unreasonable Seizure" and am starting a piece tentatively called "Red Truck." A squirrely bookish woman has a red truck with an enclosed bed park in her spot at her small apartment complex. It doesn't leave and she makes it her goal to find out whose it is and why it is there. Strange events ensue. Once I have something substantial started I'll post it.

Getting there

Things are falling into place it seems. Still no job, or anything published, but I feel better. The first full draft of "Unreasonable Seizure" is finished. I'm still not sold on the title yet, that will come through revisions. There are bits that need to be tweeked or added. I think it's missing a few things.

I'm trying to sell my short story "Gullible Jack" to various journals. Out of 12 submissions I have received three rejections so far. It's a tale of a very confused small child. Jack believes that if he eats a roadkill squirrel, he can become one. It's sad, gruesome and downright weird. I like to consider it an homage to Kafka. Due to it's odd and disturbing nature I'm not surprised it's being turned down. I just need to find the right journal or magazine for this type of story.

Hopefully I'll have some new material to post here soon. Thanks to those of you following me early on in my blogging life.

Difficulty

Rejection letters, non-responses can really weigh a writer down. Being a beginner, I'm doing my time, forced to accept these sorts of things. Sadly, I think I put too much stock in it. In response to this frustration and, in some ways, hurt, here is a rather emotive, single-graph piece I wrote roughly three years ago and edited today. I promise not everything will be this depressing. "Alone - A brief burst of feeling"

Slowly and steadily he walks into his room. Closing the door quietly behind him, he turns to face the darkness. There is no one inside. He is... This feeling strikes him even though he was expecting it. He knew the whole time that he would be by himself. The boy walks deeper into his room and pauses again. He is still... Now what? He looks at his computer and his heart sinks. I could talk to someone, then I wouldn’t feel so... As he sits down he begins to click on the screen-name of an old high school friend. It’s pointless. I’ll still be... He stands up and faces his room again. With determination the boy reaches toward the clothing that lies on his bed. No longer feeling or thinking, he drags the clothes off the bed and lets the fall to the floor. Am I watching myself? He has just received the notion that he is having an out-of-body experience. It’s like a movie; a very depressed person has just realized how much is missing from his once happy life. The boy curls his fingers around the bottom of his shirt and slowly raises his arms. Once his head had been ejected from his shirt he holds it and stares. The shirt hit floor. Desperate for more freedom he removes his shorts. No one is here. No one cares. Now standing in his underwear he looks around the room once more. Slowly turning his head he searches for something, anything. Nothing. In a sudden revelation he grabs his phone off of his desk and turns the ringer off, denying company. Having given up on finding someone to hold he slowly puts himself on his bed, stomach first. He reaches behind him and pulls the sheet and comforter (How ironic. It’s bullshit) up to his neck. Burying his face in his pillow he finally releases. Pillow soaked, he drifts away and loses consciousness, alone.

More from "Unreasonable Seizure"

An excerpt from my current short story. I'm intrigued by the league of stories where nothing important happens. Examples would be "Seinfeld" and Burn After Reading.


And so they did. The two thugs tucked Rod in like a sick child and all but kissed his forehead. They rushed around the house straightening knocked over lamps and replacing furniture. The place was already such a mess that they really hadn’t done much damage beyond what was already there. Returning to their van, they grabbed their guns again.

“Not much dark left,” said Mike. “Let’s make this quick. No names.”

“No names,” Tom repeated.

First lines first

Let's get the ball rolling here, shall we? The following is the opening line to my current project tentatively titled "Unreasonable Seizure."

At midnight on an average Friday night on an ordinary suburban street, a typical 28 year old exited a normal yellow taxi.

Hello, Web

Hello, Web,

I am an aspiring fiction writer with aspirations beyond blogs, but would like to use this as a tool for feedback. I also am a young journalist, recently graduated, looking, searching and hoping to begin a career. For the time being, however, I will write what I can, and see what I can't get published.

What will happen here is I will publish short-shorts, sentences and excerpts from current projects. Perhaps once I have a fair amount of readers, I will run ideas by you. You will provide comments and feedback. Loads of it, please. I don't care if you hated every word, I want to know. I want to know what felt right, what didn't work, what you wanted more of or less of. I promise to try my best to be error free in both content and grammar. Please forgive me, as you are my editor.

My hope for this blog is that it will bring criticism, excitement, hope and encouragement to my seedling career.