Three weeks ago I had the grand idea that I'd start blogging again. But then I started a facebook group devoted to the exchange of good, new, and old "alternative" music (we don't really use that term), and that group simply took over my online life. It has been rewarding beyond anything I expected when I opened the group and invited a dozen or so friends on New Year's Day. I've discovered great new music, shared some great old music, and come to know some very good bands I had overlooked in the eighties and nineties. If you like the songs I've posted on the blog and you're serious about music, by all means, join us. You should be able to search for the group name: "P.I.G.S.T.Y.2011" (that's the Project for InterGenerational Swapping of Tunes in the Year 2011) and request to join. If you can't find the PIGSTY on facebook, email me. We'll work something out.
And, by the way, the PIGSTY has inspired me to pick up my guitar and rediscover that I'm bored by my rudimentary guitar-playing. I can write lyrics. I can sing. I'm interested in seeking a songwriting collaborator with the hope of recording music together. I'm not all that interested in performing out (though performance comes easily to me) but I'd love to put some songs on record.
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Anyway, I've probably neglected to post links here to the stories I published in 2010. This indicates poor self-promotion, perhaps. There weren't many stories, and all were very short, but here you go (listed in the order I like them best, because I'm kind of a jerk):
1.
"Mallard" at
Wigleaf
2.
"From the Canyon to the Driveway" in
Night Train
3.
"The Spoils" in
The Collagist
4.
"Trinkets" in
Corium
I feel good about each one, and it seems silly now to see "Trinkets" in last place. But I won't delete the list to avoid looking dorky. On the contrary, I know who and what I am.
Oh, and there were two more things worth mentioning:
this "postcard" in
Wigleaf (the journal has a tradition of publishing little notes from its stories authors, and often the notes are just as good as the stories) and this
FlashFiction.net reprint and analysis of
"Onion Ring" (originally published in
Snow Monkey a few years ago). That's four flash fiction publications proper, plus two other items, bringing the 2010 grand total to six--which is six more than 2007, 2008, and 2009 combined. This writer's back in business.
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And, speaking of facebook, I'm thrilled to have made arrangements to block my access to that site from work. Though the I.T. department here said they couldn't do it, I asked my wife to change my facebook password. It's saved on my home computer, but not here at the office. So far this has felt liberating. I don't have an addictive personality, but I'm easily distracted. Facebook has been a drain on my fiction writing, I will admit, for the better part of two and a half years. And I do 95% of my writing here at the office.
And I'll go even further with this confession: sometimes I fear I'm a better facebooker than writer.
In any case, maybe the lack of access to facebook will lead to a wee bit more blogging. I'd feel good about that.
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Here, have a song--one of the great hidden gems of rock history:
"The Dolphins & The Sharks" by Crime & the City Solution (sorry, "embedding disabled by request").
("That's what she said.")
