Chili Powder

Fun with Typos

I've been in the typo zone lately, picking off typos left and right.  Jen buys a 3-pak of muffins for Sunday breakfast, I spot that they are Raisin Bran Junbo Muffins.  I'm reading the new Darth Vader Rolling Stone magazine and in the charts on the back page, I noticed they called Spoon's new album Gimme Friction (it's Fiction ya perv). 

I'm in the zone, I'm batting 1.000.  So this morning after Jen's race I step out of the house to go to Borders books, and as I'm walking up I see a huge Preorder Now banner for the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince book -- and suddenly I do a double take because I think I see another typo!  But I was wrong.  I thought they had misspelled the name of the new book Harry Potter and the Half Blood Urine. 

I thought oh my, did Harry pass a stone?  I guess I'm not batting 1.000. 

zack

Short Story

I changed the ending of my veryshortstory yet again (which garnered me the two thumbs up from Brandi, thanks for the read B) and despite my skinflinty ways I ponied up 10$ and submitted it to the 4x4: NewPort Review flash fiction contest.  I figured I'd shoot it off to a contest first before submitting it to the death death death journal -- nothing wrong with death death death but death death death hasn't updated her website in some time, leading me to believe that even death death death has mouths to feed feed feed and may not have time for the goth journal right now, which happens.  We've all had to put the goth journal on hold at one time or another.  The trick is picking it back up.

My SASE is huge and blue, so be wishing for a huge blue return envelope with a winner's issue and a check for 1st place to visit us! 

Thanks for all the support with the story dudes.  I'm on to a new one now that I'll share when more ready.

zack   

Draft of Carpools

My short short short story for the death and suicide journal is complete, or as complete as it will get; I'm cutting 'er loose and moving on.  It's called Carpools, and I'm sending it off next Monday. 

I read this great quote in Poets & Writers recently where somebody's teacher told her something like It's your fiction.  You're making it up, and you can make them do anything you want.  -- And me I find that very freeing, because usually the first thing I do in my writing is to decide all the legion things this character would NOT do, restricting him from the getgo.  That especially sucks for plays because you end up with a character standing perfectly still going umm, umm...then you as the writer try to convince yourself Hey!  That might work!  And so you have to write this umm, umm draft before anything else, so subsequent drafts are like oiling the joints. 

I have a nice new idea for a short story that I ran by Jen last night and I think she thought there was something there so I'm going for that next.  It should be ready just in time to give to Marcel as a high school graduation gift.  :)

zack

Here's 'Carpools':

Download Carpools.doc    

Depressing Short Story

I'm in the middle of a terribly depressing short story for submission to a death/suicide journal.  Their fiction requirements are 1000 words or less, so it's an exercise in starting as late in the story as humanly possible -- only problem is it's so depressing to work on!  It's about a young mother Meredith who has a newborn baby and has recently returned home to be with her own mother.  Meredith's mother has joined the work carpool so as to let her daughter borrow the Volvo a couple days a week to get things going again.  But Meredith instead decides to asphyxiate herself in the garage while the car is running.  And that's pretty much that!  And like I said, it has to start way late -- the car's already running when the reader shows up. 

(If you're like me, a thief who turned to writing because here you can steal and it's legal, check out Michael Chabon's new novella The Final Solution for brilliant examples of starting chapters as late as possible [and finishing them as early as possible].  I read it in a sitting Friday night because I was fishing for writing technique to jack.) 

Meredith & Co. have been in a journal of mine since January, and I want to tie up loose ends and send them off before I continue revising my novel (rough draft written during last year's Nanowrimo, a highly recommended event to everyone who has ever wanted to write a novel) , which is a overt attempt at sounding like I have a plan -- the truth is I'm LOOKING for loose ends to tie up because to go any further with my book I've got to trash the first third of it.  It's backstory.  Sucks.  (De, I know I haven't written back about what my book's about -- I'll be looking for readers here in a couple months so maybe I can send you a chapter sometime this summer?  It involves a father leaving his family to be homeless, the economy, and death by rabies.)

zack