Don Pizarro's Manual of the Seven Wudan Tiger Shaolin Monkey Kung-Fu Style o' Death
“Combat Stress Reaction” is up today in CG‘s Gadgets & Artifacts issue.
Now, you could click the links and read the stories in the issue for free, but you know you want to support this fine, paying market. Luckily, they have several ways for you to do that!
I didn’t post last Sunday’s critique group evisceration due to sheer exhaustion. But the hardest two weeks of the academic year are behind me at the dayjob. I took an extra day off for the holiday weekend and I pretty much wasted yesterday (on purpose). So, I figure looking at these crits would be a good way for me to get back into writing today as I (try to) keep live audio and video feeds of Roland Garros in the background.
It occurs to me now that I’ve only looked at the story once or twice since then. I was temporarily seduced by a couple of flash fiction projects, one for a prompt on Zoetrope, and the other by a Twitter joke gone too far, with further yet to go.
Anyway, I brought the next bit of the short story I brought last crit group session, which is for a seekrit project. The group read the first part of the second act. With scalpels and machetes out, here’s what they said.
StoryWin
StoryFail
So, lots to fix with this story and a third act to write. Luckily, I have several months to get it together.
This was a flash fiction piece I wrote, prompted by and workshopped in a private office of the Zoetrope Virtual Studio, not to mention my face-to-face critique group.
Nice to know I’m going 3 for 10 for my latest round of story submissions, eh?
It’s been over two months since my last confession piece was eviscerated by the critique group. Almost forgot what it was like. Luckily, I picked it up again pretty darn fast!
I’m writing and submitting, even got two publications in so far. I’ve also trunked two longer writing projects this year that just weren’t working for me. I hate doing that because it means violating Robert Heinlein’s #2 Rule for Writing: You must finish what you write. But I was prompted to start a new story by–well, I can’t tell you why, not yet. It’s a seekrit. Suffice it to say that this is the first time in a long time I was so excited by an idea. In one morning, I had a rough plot outline of all the major points I want to hit. By lunchtime, I had a title. I almost never have a title until the end.
I spit out Act I in time to submit it for vivisection by the critique group. And, vivisect it they did!
StoryWin
StoryFail
Quite possibly, I should’ve let this draft cool before bringing it. But apart from obvious fixes, I got a couple of really good suggestions that I’ll implement right away. And hopefully, I’ll have at least Act II ready for next session which, because of scheduling around some holidays, will be next week! Gotta get moving…
The contract is signed and in the mail, and the editors announced it, and so I will, too. My story “Combat Stress Reaction” will appear in the Gadgets and Artifacts issue of Crossed Genres on June 1st, along with work from Wendy Wagner, Daniel José Older, Michael Underwood, and Timothy Murphy.
I have nine other pieces currently in circulation, so at least I know I won’t be going 0 for 10, whatever else happens. I just know that it’s been too long since I signed a story contract and now that daddy’s had another taste, daddy wants more!
My Sunday started out with brunch with some friends and mimosas! I think I’ve found something to replace my love of riesling. But that wasn’t why I made a two-hour drive.
As part of a benefit for the JCC of Greater Rochester, actor Elliott Gould was in the region for a 40th Anniversary Screening of the film MASH, one of my all-time favorite films. Seemed like a good reason for a roadtrip. One of my friends from overseas even (jokingly) threatened me with death if I squandered the opportunity and didn’t go.
Gould did a brief introduction before the screening. His presence was definitely worth the price of admission. I’d have paid double if Donald Sutherland would’ve been there, too. After all, my favorite line in the film was about his Hawkeye Pierce.
Hot Lips O’Houlihan: “I wonder how a degenerated person like that could’ve reached a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps.”
Father Mulcahy: “He was drafted.”
During the Q&A afterward, Gould (justifiably) credited the series for keeping Altman’s film alive. Now, if I wasn’t so tired, I’d go on about how much more I like the film than I ever liked the TV series. I understand that film and TV are two completely different animals, and how some of what I liked about film just wouldn’t translate. Still, the film’s tone was more my speed.
I’d made jokes beforehand about how I was going to ask lame questions like, “Gee, did you realize 40 years ago that you were making a classic?” Or the sort of stuff Chris Farley would ask: “Remember… that scene… when you punched out Robert Duvall? Remember? ‘Cos he made that kid cry. Remember that?
“That was awesome.”
I think that by making those jokes, I’d realized, at least on a subconscious level, that those are the sorts of questions that always get asked whenever you open a forum up to “the general public.” It happened when I saw writer Joyce Carol Oates speak last year. She was there to talk about a non-fiction project she was doing at the time. Now, as disappointing as that was–I’d wanted to her about her fiction, of course–it would never occur to me to ask the question most writers dread hearing, “Where do you get your ideas from?”
Now, not every question Gould was asked was at that level, but it was pretty close. As a result, I didn’t hear Gould say anything I didn’t already know from watching the MASH DVD extras–except for the fact that apparently director Martin Scorsese didn’t understand the game of football until he watched the football scene in MASH.
I know that must make me sound like a total snob.
Still, the opportunity just to be present at an event like this, honoring a piece of art with one of the people involved in making it was pretty breathtaking. Just the thing to get my creative juices flowing….
1
Last night, I went to the season opener double-header for the Ithaca League of Women Rollers, i.e. our two local derby teams, the SufferJets and the Bluestockings. Great bout!! A comment was made by one of the announcers, giving me an idea for a short story.
2
Came up with another idea for a short story a couple of days ago. I think it’s a killer idea. I don’t have a character in mind for it. Which means, I don’t have any scenes in mind. It’s frustrating, because until I come up with one or the other, the idea’s useless to me.
3
I used to keep a monthly scorecard of my short-story submissions, but explaining why I didn’t submit any stories for a given month got old. I got back on a submissions kick this month, putting out 5 previously rejected stories and 3 new ones. I’ve already gotten 3 rejections back. *sigh*
Gotta keep pushing!
4
It’s taken me two years for me to follow my own advice and start reading Ben Tanzer‘s book Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine. You know how it is. You intend to order something that’s not available at your local bookstore, and you just put off doing it. And then, it does appear at your local bookstore.
Yo, Ben — I started it and I’m liking what I’m reading so far. Sorry it took me so long!
5
This is part of a push on my part to read more novels in 2010. How else am I ever going to learn to write one…?
6
It has its flaws (which I understand are soon to be remedied), but I’m still in love with mint.com. It’s given me something I’ve needed for a long time, namely a way of GTD-ing my money management.
7
I cannot tell you how much I’m enjoying the 2010 series of Doctor Who. I wasn’t up in arms about David Tennant leaving the role, because I’d learned my lesson. I remember ranting in 2005, “What do you mean Christopher Eccleston’s leaving?” I had no idea how good Tennant was going to be. Well, I looked forward to Matt Smith’s performance, and so far, so good. And I admit that he rocks the tweed jacket better than I do.
Not only that, but so far the new head-writer/producer Steven Moffat has delivered, too, AFAIC. The BBC made the right choice, giving the show to the writer whose episodes have won Hugo awards. No, the episodes haven’t been perfect but I’m very, very impressed with what he’s done with the show’s tone. Everything people say about the fairy-tale/fantasy tone is all true. The first two episodes, especially, seemed like a sci-fi version of Pan’s Labyrinth. The only to make them better would be to have had them directed by Guillermo Del Toro.
8
I really need to do something about my home office. I’m fighting the clutter lately, and losing. The trouble is, the only solution is hard for me to face. I need a new desk with more tabletop real estate, which means taking the time and trouble to empty out and junk my old desk. Dammit.
#
I think that’s it for now.
Madeleine Is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I first read Bynum in Tin House: Fantastic Women. I thought “The Young Wife’s Tale” was nice story with nice writing, but it didn’t prepare me for what I’d find in this novel.
Bynum’s writing style is simply hypnotic. It’s as dreamlike as just about every other reviewer says it is, but that shouldn’t put you off. Just don’t get too tied up in the dream logic of these interconnected vignettes. Don’t worry about the line between the real and the dream. Just go with it and be absorbed.
Let me tell you something
I’ve met men in jail who had more style
than the people who hang around colleges
and go to poetry readings
They’re bloodsuckers who come to see
if the poet’s socks are dirty
or if he smells under the arms
Believe me I won’t disappoint em-Raymond Carver, “You Don’t Know What Love Is (An Evening with Charles Bukowski)”
I did not to a poetry reading last Friday night, but I did go to a Paint Off–an annual fundraiser featuring local artists who had one hour to create artpiece which would be auctioned off to benefit a local summer festival.
I wasn’t the only one gawking at them and taking pictures, and I admit going with some romanticized delusion about watching a piece of art being conjured out of thin air from nothing but the Muse’s direction. I’m willing to bet I wasn’t the only one doing that, either. Then I gave the matter a second’s thought and I finally realized that these weren’t “artistes” whose socks were dirty or who smell under the arms. They were artists who were working.
I saw people with their sleeves rolled up, sweating, scrambling, and getting their hands dirty. I saw noses put to the grindstone.
This is the real magic of art to me, whether it’s painting, sculpting, music–or even writing. This is the level of professionalism I want to attain.
This inspires me.
You?
So, I may not be sure exactly where I fit into the whole social-writer-networking thing, but I at least know to return a compliment. I’m a little late, but let me return a shout-out to Medeia, who gave me The Picasso Award last week.
The idea is to post seven truths about myself and invite others to do the same. Now, in the interest of bandwidth conservation, I don’t like pressuring people into playing along. But by all means, any and all comers are welcome to.
So, here goes. But, caveat emptor: I share the same views on truth as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Any questions?