Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

This morning I finished up the draft of a new story, "Mystery Achievement." I'll be posting it on iPublish after another couple of times through it. The iPublish site has an "assignments" area, which are suggestions for writing, based on what they think their readers are interested in. "Mystery Achievement" is in response to their "Song Stories" assignment.

My song, of course, is Mystery Achievement, from the first Pretenders album. The story tries to recapture the feeling of being nineteen in the events of a single afternoon. I know, it's just that coming up on forty thing making me long for the old days, so you can just shut up about that. My mid-life crisis aside, I think the story is pretty good.

I'd tried to write a story from that song before - maybe not quite a year ago - but it didn't really go anywhere. This version, however, I'm real proud of. I'll let you know when it's publicly posted.

Also - Just finished a great collection of short stories, "Speaking with the Angel," edited by Nick Hornby. Great new fiction by mostly British writers, including Hornby (High Fidelity), Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting), Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones's Diary), Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious), and more. Plus, the proceeds from the book go to benefit education for children with autism. So go buy the damn thing already!