< NEW WORK! So new, I haven't seen it, which is particularly gnarly cause I sent my pal some *hot* pages, been edited to death over a day/two...written the day/two before that...on a story I started over...well, about ten years from now! Which has been published, already, shortly before I "left Wisconsin," as I like to say, sometimes...the story was 500 words at that time and I knew what happened with the mom, but didn't know how to say it. Shortly before my "thesis defense" I figured out how to say some stuff (I also had a nightmarish defense, like weirdly and personally nightmarish) and rewrote this to read part of it at the end-of-the-deal-year-end-final-sales-closing-event event.
That flash piece was published in an online journal called Barren Magazine, but it appears to be dead now, or under construction, or waiting to be revived...y'all know how it is...
>>>>>AND THEN THERE IS THIS>>>>The SECOND ISSUE of the BASTARD'S REVIEW, "fox valley" - WISCONSIN FOLK JOURNAL
*Two of the Best Poems, probably The Two Best poems I've ever written, let alone edited to completion (they were almost complete, as is) - lots to say, plans to write about that and post some snippets as time allows and build up this site / personality
And this, that feels dusty already - but I'm proud of the hard work, mine and two dozen other's + a couple of calloused hands = A Short Story that represents everything I was working on, and could not possibly dedicate a lifetime too, as an MFA student. It's good, people say, I still can't believe there's a prize and wonder enough to flinch back from "conspiracy" but then I remember that it's as simple as shining or sharpening...you just beat the hell out of the thing until no one can argue with it. It's one way to write...
....and right now...at this moment, I am way too exhausted to care how much of an asshole that "makes me sound like" - ok, I care!
One More Thing: This story was the first time it totally clicked, how to make it fiction...also, I learned A TON w/ that MFA program...
...and it is "good" - ya know, I have a lot to say about words...and how little they actually "mean" - what does "mean" even mean...
...but, yeah, it is an objectively, "good" story...all this cause I got that weird shiver, you know the one...where you didn't actually say the thing that you hear echoing in your head, that "everyone" is going to think you said, but that's not actually what you said....LOL
+ It's nice to be validated, it's awesome to work hard on something and have people see it ...maybe I just "like arguing" too much...
or maybe it's just not as exciting as when you know something is good, and like, it seems, at least...like no one else does. A thrill...