new writing

I am focusing some of my writing time on something silly. A look at my life as a silly young comic kid. I am focusing on one Richie Rich Comic book, but I hope to talk about what it was like to be a comic kid. Its in a blog, and already I have written 3500 words on it. For a flash fiction guy, its like I have been writing epics. More to come. Check it out if you want

 arichierichcomic.blogspot.com

what I am doing

The last time I wrote here, I started a new blog to write a small manuscript, a weird little book, well I have finished it. It is nice that in three months, I can crate something. It is 11 thousand words. Little book. But interesting I think. I didn't tell anyone about it, I just wrote. Now it is a first draft and I will be fixing it up but I want to send it out soon just to get that going. There are few publishers who handle weirdness like this, so we will see.

With that said, I am inspired by the use of the internet to write and write fast. I am writing a first draft, the old fashioned pen and ink way, a collection of fantasy-horror set at a bar stories (these used to be called Club Stories, but being that no one knows about that type of tale, I will just call it the oddness at the bar) And I will be writing a non-fiction blog- put it together as a book - thing. I am with the crowd in not digging books that are blogs, but I find it an interesting personal challenge and the first blogged book worked for me so I will continue.

More on that as we go on.

If anyone is interested in the other manuscript I finished, here is some of it in blog form thedetectivepresentstheevidence.blogspot.com

Swim Class

I forgot to post the link to this story. It was written in the same vein and on the same day as Dirt Bikes, where I took a Moth Story Hour kind of thing and then made it interesting. Do we really just want to hear funny ironic stories of our petty foibles or do we want stories with man eating fish?

It was published by a favorite site, Linguistic Erosion, which has published 15 or so of my pieces. So thanks.

http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2013/02/swim-class.html

Johnny Roadside

I have a new story up at one of my favorite sites, Haggard and Halloo, that I am very happy with. It works and it took me three or so tries to get it to what I like. I finally got it when I remembered the song "r. Bad Example" by Warren Zevon. I just kept that song in my head when I wrote the story.

http://www.haggardandhalloo.com/2013/04/14/johnny-roadside/

More on the other thing

I will return with more things on my writing life, but I am pretty excited about the Hangover Hour and it coming in a month. Cool Cool Cool. With the help of Bob and Gary, I have started a tumblr site for it. Its very bare bones, but it is out there. Check it out, I am loading it with poetry video links and other things to set the mood

thehangoverhour.com

The Hangover Hour

I have been off writing and working and running after a four year old. in my spare time, I am setting up a new spoken word reading venue in the city of Worcester. This is a little different, it is at 5 on a Sunday and there will be an open mike for everyone, it will not have a feature per se. It will have people performing the work of forgotten old writers. Actually, not that forgotten. I think all are pretty well known. We have Parker, Millay, Frank O Hara, Stephen Vincent Benet, Lord Buckley and then my favorite, Ruth Draper, who is pretty forgotten. I got the okay for six evenings to try it out. IT is the Hangover Hour Spoken Word Salon and it will be at Nick's starting on May 12th. Very excited. Almost done with the first flyer which will have an open and Tony Brown, poet and raconteur, perform a little Lord Buckley goodness.

That's where I've been

an object lesson

I was at Nick's trying to write, like I do Sundays, and out of desperation, because nothing is a better task master than a blank page you are stuck in front of, and I came up with the title The Mugshot of Dorian Gray. I liked it. I knew it was something I could do, and I quickly wrote the first couple sentences and they seemed good and then I did the dumb thing, the awful thing, I said outloud, "Damn, this thing is going to write itself."

Never say that.

It is akin to writer's blasphemey. Sneering at the god of grammar and tense.

After another 150 words the story stalled. It wasn't working. It was certainly not writing itself. Luckily I still liked the title so I tried it again from the Title and nothing else and I was able to get through it. I was able to beg forgiveness for such silly arrogance.

Here is the story.
http://www.fiction365.com/2013/01/the-mugshot-of-dorian-gray/

Dirt Bikes is Up

Here is a half autobiographical story (guess which half) I wrote. I must say that I hear many responses to critiques on dialogue or plot issues with "But that's how it happened.:" or "But that's exactly what they said." To that I say, "So what?" so your life didn't work well in a story structure. Fix it. Change it. Lie like a bastard. Have fun.

Here is the story

http://www.linguisticerosion.com/2013/01/dirt-bikes.html

Mothful of Nonsense

I have a story being published at Linguistic Erosion in a few days and it will allow me to go off on something that annoys me: the belief that stories need to be autobiography. I think that that is such a small, inhibiting way of seeing storytelling. The Moth is this storytelling thing where hipsters tell true stories in an ironic This American Life sort of way. Some of it is good, but most strikes me as self indulgent.

I wrote three pieces in the fall that were my take on the moth. I started each story with a real story of my life and then went complete fabrication. Complete bullshit. It was a total joy to write this, to take real tales and say the hell with it. Only after I wrote them did I realize I was making a comment on the Moth and all the memoir brigade.

More later