A new story at Uncanny Magazine
What's this? A new story online after only (checks calendar) nine or ten months since the last one? A miracle!
uncanny magazine
One of my all-time favorite literary magazines is Uncanny, and when I can sell them a story, it pretty much makes my year. So I am thrilled to say that "Four Words Written on My Skin" is now live and free to read on that glorious site.
inspiration
On a few occasions, I have participated in a flash-writing challenge in one of my online writing communities. For five weeks, you get prompts on Friday night and have to write a flash story by Sunday night. It makes for some fun, frantic weekends, and almost all of my story sales for the past few years have come out of these writing flurries.
The prompt I chose for this story was about objects. What makes them important?
When I write flash, I don't plan. I write the first sentence that comes to mind, and then the second, and then the third. I keep going until some sort of story starts to take shape. Because the stories are so short, this can sometimes work. And it often doesn't! But the stories are short, so, hey, no big deal.
From my notes, I see the first two paragraphs I wrote remained unchanged from first draft to published story:
When the Fae stole my wife, I followed them into the dark woods to win her back. Jess dropped breadcrumbs along the trail, except she had no bread, so she dropped other things instead. Not far from the house, I found
a blue sweater, embroidered with gold bees, still smelling of the night we cooked mussels on the grill and burnt the shells and she laughed, her fingers black with char
At that point, my first draft became draftier. I started writing about this person the narrator was following, but I didn't understand the narrator's relationship to her. Were the Fae the villains, and the narrator was simply trying to rescue her wife? That didn't interest me much. I wondered if the narrator was, in fact, the real culprit. If the core relationship was more complicated and fraught.
It's hard to explain why I love writing flash so much. Partly, I think because it hews closer to poetry than anything else I do. You can focus on a few strong images or one single feeling. You can let the language do what it wants, because it doesn't have to sustain a novel-length attention span.
Writing flash feels like playing to me. It's purely joyful. If I could make a living selling it, I might never write a novel again. Then again, maybe part of what makes it "play" is that I can't actually pay the bills with it.
(Confession: I have, however, bought fountain pens with the money from flash sales. Even more play!)
ECHO PARK news...
ECHO PARK is nominated for a Signal Award for "Most Innovative Audio Experience"! Published by Realm.fm, ECHO PARK was written by Curtis C. Chen (our fearless leader), Millie Ho, Monte Lin, Sloane Long, and me. The amazing Harry Shum Jr. is the primary narrator, and he does a fantastic job. I had so much fun working in a virtual "writers' room" during the pandemic, and I'm thrilled that the response has been so good.
Note: This show is for adults and contains swearing, adult themes, and many things that might merit content warnings, such as guns, drugs, and impersonating your own clone.
If you wanna vote, jump through the hoops here.
thanks...
...for sharing the good news with me! And if you're in the mood for some art, check out my facebook page, my art instagram @jenn.draws, or my Bluesky account for my "Autumn Hearth" October Art Challenge drawings.
Until next time,
Jenn
Member discussion