But you know what? I think it’s going to be OK. Sometimes it’s just better to let your mind wander and see what happens. And this story idea is so screwball, I think it will work no matter which direction it goes in. I have a loose, general plot idea (doughnuts, funerals, bestiality cults . . . the usual) – and the more strange and off-the-wall the rest of the story can be, the better. This year I am trying something different. Maybe it’ll work; maybe it won’t. I’m not going to have the time to fret about it, so why waste my energy?

The novel I’m currently revising, we’ll call it B-Killer to keep things simple, started from an idea I got while on a three-day train ride, so I whipped out my iPad and just started writing. I never wrote a single outline, a single character sketch – nothing. As I’m revising it, I’m retroactively making a character/world bible just so I have something to refer to as I work my way through because a few characters did go from having “dark eyes” to “hazel eyes,” so for the revision process it’s good to nail those details down. But in your first draft – who cares! Quantity over quality – that’s always been my mantra when banging out a first draft. Write first. Worry about the details later. Just get that idea on paper before you’re distracted by the next shiny idea to pop in your head!

Found on a sidewalk in Fairmount in the Near Southside.

Needless to say, I did not whistle. Maybe another day when I’m feeling more suicidal.

This year I’m going to try some for something a little less heavy than my previous years’ attempts. Something manic and ridiculous – celebration of (harmless) deviance. This will be the first 3DN since a rockin’ coffee shop opened up two blocks from my house – I think I’ll be drinking a LOT of soy lattes this Labor Day weekend.

Lots of junk has happened recently. New job. Other stuff. Exciting! Maybe I’ll write about it! Or maybe I’ll forget and neglect the blog for a few more months. You’ll just have to come back and find out!

Rio, lounging in his favorite chair. This is how he spends about 80% of his day.

What does this mean?

Basically, read, write, buy, and talking about short stories more!

I really am surprised that in this day and age the short story format isn’t more popular. I mean, we all have pretty short attention spans these days (I know I sure do). The short story is the perfect fiction format for the more noncommittal reader (myself included). It seems like everyone laments that the short story is dying, but no one really does anything about it or offers a solution to this problem.

So, buy a short story collection, read some online short fiction, and talk short fiction up. The next time someone says the short story is dying, start running and screaming, and claim that you are being chased by an undead short story because 2011 is the year the short story is being resurrected.

Well, my husband has recently been trying his hand at film photography, and that inspired me to take a whack at it. I have two film “toy cameras”—a 120 Holga and a Blackbird, fly.

Here’s a picture of me being all photographer-y in Marfa, Texas.

Digital camera have always frustrated the living bejeezus out of me. So many of the settings are hidden away in weird menus I don’t know how to access and there’s just something flat about digital photography compared to film photography (I’m also one of those weirdos who swears records sound better than CDs). On film cameras, all the knobs and buttons and dials you need to get your settings in order are right there on the camera. Granted, toy camera are unreliable in their own special ways (light leaks and inaccurate viewfinders, anyone?), but I don’t know . . . there’s just something about film I prefer over digital. So I’ll be posting my film photos here every once in a while. You can also find me on flickr here.

Writing-wise, I’m still working on expanding my 3-Day Novel. I’m getting close . . . oh-so-close . . . to being done with the completed, expanded first draft.

Also, I finished a short story today! Wonders never cease!

And some of my friends have had stories published! Check them out!

Erin’s story “Not Your Kind of Heathen” is in ResAliens #5.

Jens’s story “The Vicksburg Dead” is in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. Yay for pro sales!

And Alex’s story “The Organization is in A Thousand Faces.

Yay us!

I have a few things out on submission right now, and I’ve collected a few rejection slips, too. Gotta start somewhere. Gotta keep writing.

Don’t forget to check out my writing prompt project, Writing Prompts That Don’t Suck.

And the vegan blog I write for VegFortWorth.

She who keeps writing, WINS!!

Blackbird, Fly
35 mm, 200 ISO, Generic Film

The Marfa water tower.

Blackbird, Fly
35 mm, 200 ISO, Generic Film

An accidental triple (or quadruple?) exposure taken of a bike parked in front of one of the many Donald Judd Buildings in Marfa, Texas.