February's Letter
Thank you for reading The Strangest Times
Thank you for reading The Strangest Times. One of my favorite things to do is write this monthly letter.
Writing Updates
In the novel category, Paper Island is getting lovely, useful feedback from the beta readers and I’m so grateful to all of them. I have started querying it to indie publishers and I am excited to maybe hear some positive news.
I’m also working on a few short stories:
In my series From the Ground Up, I’ve been taking you through the creation of a new short story.
I also recently finished a short story called “A Signal Echoes through Radiospace.” It’s gotten some encouraging rejections already, so hopefully there’s a yes in its future.
I am still chipping away at my book club/review/play series, which starts here. I want to submit part of it to a few magazines and maybe one day have it read.
I also have a few other projects in the fires that haven’t coalesced, yet. As you know by now, I am always working on a few different things at a time.
What I’ve been reading lately:
“Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” by ZZ Packer. It’s a short story about a Black girl’s first year at Yale and a series of identity crises she has there. Every single sentence matters in this story, and it’s devastating and ironic.
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami. Murakami’s novels are often very long. Like Killing Commendatore, this one is taking me a long time to get through. The whole part one could have been a novel. It had an arc. Part two is interesting as well, but could have been a sequel. I know that Killing Commendatore was published in two parts in Japan. Was this one too? I haven’t bothered to look it up.
I recently finished Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay. It’s a historical fiction book dressed up as a fantasy. It’s an interesting approach and apparently this is how Kay has written all of his novels. I cared deeply for the situation and the characters in it. I got exactly the information that I needed. I didn’t feel it rambled or went on tangents. Very, very good. I want to write a whole entry on the concept of writing that is poised toward a moment. Does Kay’s level of research and clear expertise on a subject excuse him, a White Canadian, from accusations of cultural appropriation? Are all creative people restricted to writing about their own culture? Why or why not? Surely there’s a spectrum, but where is Kay on that line?
“Super Frog Saves Tokyo” is another story from after the quake. I’ve been writing on it for my blog/the play I’ve been working on. It’s a really bizarre story in classic Murakami fashion. It first appeared in GQ. The issue it appeared in goes for $75+ on eBay. David Beckham is greasy and shirtless on the cover.
“A Walk to Kobe.” I recently subscribed to Granta magazine ($1 for six months of digital). This is an essay by Haruki Murakami about what’s described in the title. The significance is that Murakami grew up in Kobe. The quake in after the quake devastated Kobe two years before he walked and the essay details his first trip back. It’s moving and full of jaw-dropping liners.
I recently subscribed to Harper’s Magazine for 2 years (print and digital for $33), and not just because I submitted a piece for their consideration—because why not? I haven’t read anything yet.
Maintenant 17: Peacefire. Maintenant (French for Now!) is a Dadaist magazine of art, poetry, and prose. I read this one as professional research. I’ll be trying to get a piece in their next issue: Ethics Cleansing. There is moving and angry art throughout the magazine. The prose is mostly bizarre, but the poetry is at points very moving. I had to research what Dadaism is more before I submitted to it. I came across a great short story by Leonora Carrington called “The Debutante.”
Chaotic Merge #8. I really like Chaotic Merge. I don’t read a lot of lit mags so I have very little authority on them. But I like it.
Motif RI is a paper zine I pick up at the bagel shop or the liquor store. In a January issue, there was a story about a cab driver picking up a homeless man that has stuck with me. I’ve lost the copy, though, so it will just have to live in my head.
I’m traveling a lot in the coming months. What would be good to read on a plane?