An Author's Perspective
Featuring new fiction from Ken Brosky and author authors, as well as occasional political commentary whenever something really important happens. But mostly fiction.
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Your Toilet Paper is Shrinking
Businesses have been hit hard during this quasi-depression. People are scared and they're not buying as much, which is one of the big reasons why things are still bad (of course, you can hardly blame them!). Market law dictates that when people buy less products (demand goes down), companies drop the prices of their products to meet that lower demand. As demand goes down, so do prices.
But that's not what's happening. Take a close look at your toilet paper wrapping. Take a close look at the measuring system used for everything from paper towels to jars of peanut butter. Guess what? The price is going down a little, but so is the product!
Fiction: "At Four Thousand Feet and Rising"
I've been tearing through a number of literary journals to see if I can find my favorites online to share with you, but so far I've had little to no luck. Everything, it seems, requires a subscription to the print journals, which is a shame because there are a lot of people willing to take a little time online and read some great fiction.
Lucky for you, I didn't give up until I found something worthy of sharing. This story comes from Our Stories.
Featured Writer: Amanda Stern
Sometimes a Web site really stands out, and it helps when you're a writer to entertain people who visit the site (I haven't mastered this yet, primarily because I'm downright lazy).
But Amanda Stern has PLENTY of stuff worth checking out on her Web site. In addition to links for her fiction and non-fiction, she has plenty of great Graphic Poetry up, all available to read for free. She also has "Ugly Teen Photos," and you're free to contribute to that collection. I'm considering it, since I spent my middle school years with a rat tail.
Uncomfortable Plot Summaries
I know some people don't like reading, especially when there's a good (or bad) movie to watch instead. I accept this. I also know that a lot of people who DO enjoy reading like to go out and watch movies, too. But let's face it: who has time to read an entire paragraph summarizing a movie? In today's modern world, that just isn't fast enough.
Try Uncomfortable Plot Summaries instead. They're quick, to the point, and downright hilarious.
Featured Author: Kevin Brockmeier
I happened upon Kevin Brockmeier at a local Barnes and Noble, where I promptly digested his entire new short story collection, The View From the Seventh Layer (Vintage Contemporaries)
. It was an absolutely fantastic book, well worth reading. And so I wanted to share some of his work with you.There was only one problem: I couldn't find much of ANYTHING online to share. Literally nothing. Not a single short story put up by any literary journals, not even an "official" Web site of some sort to link you to. This is a huge problem. Brockmeier is great, he's fun to read, he's worth sharing with other people. But how is anyone who browses the net supposed to find his stuff?
Maybe it's just his publisher. Maybe. Or maybe it's something else, I have no idea. All I know is that the last short story I shared on this blog got close to a thousand hits (and counting). That's a thousand potential readers. And isn't that the point of writing a story?
Maybe I'm just crazy.
Well, regardless, I found a few excerpts to share with you. If you like his stuff, support him. I think he's absolutely fantastic.
Excerpt from The View From the Seventh Layer (short story collection).
Excerpt from The Brief History of the Dead.
Fiction: "Intrusion" by Eric McKinley
Here's a good short story by Eric McKinley available online for FREE! Isn't that fantastic? In fact, on his official Web site, he even has LINKS to his short stories so interested visitors can read them! Eric used to be a lawyer, and now he's finishing up his MFA at Rosemont College and working on completing his first novel.
"This is the Way We Belong" by Jesse Dunlap (Whiskey Island Magazine)
This one's a short-short but it's a good one, from Whiskey Island Magazine out of Cleveland State University.
Click here to read "This is the Way We Belong" by Jesse Dunlap.
Fiction: "AM/PM" by Amelia Gray
This is a short-short story by Amelia Gray found in the newest issue of American Short Fiction. ASF is a great magazine for those of you who enjoy a broad range of fiction, and welcome a pretty decent amount of experimentation, the type of stuff you might not see in a stuffier literary journal.
