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Today I posted the second one sentence story in the Bananagrams collection.
https://storiesonline.net/series/1804/bananagrams
The new story is called A Fey Lie, and it’s a follow up to the first Bananagram story, “Cockwise.”
If you might be interested in contributing your own Bananagram to the collection, check out the information at the end of “A Fey Lie.”
https://storiesonline.net/s/33652/a-fey-lie
I wrote and illustrated the Emma Portal story “Roman a Clef” last December and posted it today. This March Amazon released a First Read Kindle novel by Zibby Owens called “Blank.” The plot involves a young writer who, after having a successful first novel, is suffering from writer’s block, but she gets an idea for a new novel, and begins writing it. She’s well into the project when someone else publishes a novel with essentially the same plot. She’s under pressure to produce a new novel, and as a last resort proposes a book that is nothing but blank pages. Who would buy such a book? Is it possible Zibby somehow had access to my Microsoft account and stole the idea? I like to think that Zibby is colluding with Emma.
I use Word when writing stories. This morning Word took a while to open. “Updating,” my computer told me. I was happy enough with the way Word was, and I was a bit worried about what might have changed. So far the only thing I’ve noticed is that I get a faint underline beneath words or phrases that Word thinks some readers might find offensive. In the few paragraphs I wrote, these included “cunt,” “blowjob,” and “butt hole.” I don’t mind these warnings, as long as that’s as far as it goes. I’m happy to have the input. In fiction my philosophy is anything goes. I do remember in my early teens upon first encountering erotica that I was a bit offended by the word “tits.” I thought something so special as a woman’s breasts shouldn’t be reduced to the vulgar. But then a friend of mine, pointing to the oversized breasts in a Mad Magazine illustration about bowling, said, “Look at the bazoomers on this one.” I’m not sure if there’s one z or two in bazoomers. Word doesn’t say. It was a great illustration, though; the bazoomers, bigger than 16 pound bowling balls, were flying all but free of the woman’s loose and perhaps modestly unbuttoned blouse.
Likely lots of racial appellations will get the faint underline. I’m fine with that, too, as long as my text isn’t censored.
I am a bit curious whether there are words or phrases the SoL reader finds offensive in fiction. Okay, I confess, I’m offended by “they” referring to a person who doesn’t want to be “he” or “she.” What’s wrong with “it”? Maybe I’ll outgrow it, just like I outgrew tits.
A pleasant coincidence today: the novel I’m currently reading, The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner, contains a passage about dancing, and the story I posted today, “The Dance Lesson,” is also about dancing. I suppose that’s the extent of the similarity, but I do enjoy when this happens. Here’s the paragraph from The Children’s Bach:
People danced there, in the daytime, in the middle of the morning, down the aisle between the two long rows of tables. The songs they favoured were South American ones with titles the Australians passed over in ignorance, thinking them Italian: the songs were more passionate, more driven, more intellectual than anything we know of here. They danced in each other's arms, with their elbows up high and no expression on their faces: it was all form and precision. They did the tango, the rhumba, the samba. They knew the steps. They never stumbled. Their arms and legs were long and sinewy. The dresses were a spray of light. The men's trousers hit the shoe just right.
Not long ago a reader commented that the illustrations to my stories lacked mature (though not old) fully-figured women. While I agree that I tend to prefer lithe female models of modest breast and perhaps boyish bottom, I think over the years I have included a fair number of women with other shapes. However, in response to that comment, I’ve created a woman of some heft and maybe a bit on the other side of thirty-five. She shows up in today’s story “Flamenco,” which is about a couple preparing for their participation in a parents’ talent show at the local high school. Tomorrow’s story “Talent Show” continues with that event. In the next week or two this woman will appear in a few more stories. (If you have an interest in seeing a character with a particular feature or features, don’t hesitate to let me know.)
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