Wednesday 7/6/22
Have a headache, but the News section is finally up to date. Hooray. That was a pain. Go to the News section on the website of just about any other author, and you know what you won't see? Examples of actual writing. Because most writers hardly write anything. What you will see are BS reviews that the writer of the review did not mean, and blurbs from people who also write little and are likewise licked. That kind of puffery. But funny how you see so little writing. What do you see in the News section here? You see no praise, no gushy reviews, nothing like that, precisely because this person writes, writes constantly, and writes better, and so for those reasons, there is no support, no coverage, no praise, no spreading of the word. See the difference? You see actual writing and hear in-depth conversations in this News section. Constantly.
I finished a new story that was one of those stories that had solely been referenced on here as a new story. Sometimes I don't know the title yet, sometimes I don't want to put it down yet. Everything is different and there are a lot of factors with each work. This one blew me away. It's called "So Ugly," and it's about the ugliest girl, and then woman, in the world. But it is so much more. I think one of the things that stands out most with the fiction is how surprising it is. A hallmark. Nothing comes out of blue as this "boom, shocked you!" kind of thing, but you're constantly surprised at the micro and macro levels of the work. I started reading this, after I had fixed it, expecting one thing, same as I did when I had opened the file again and began reworking the story. Somewhere in that process, it became what it was. And as I read what that was, and got to the end, I was surprised that this story I thought at different times was a different thing--including during this last read--was this particular thing. This story is such an embrace. A surprising embrace.
Not great efforting today, though. I sent a letter I did not want to send and am prepared to do what I have to do on here if necessary. I pitched something on what I call a human horror film--and the perfect summer horror film--and came up with another horror film idea for the autumn. I walked six miles and did sixty push-ups. Three sets of twenty. I got cranberry juice. I drank a quart of hibiscus tea for my heart. It was iced. Sent a piece on the word "literally" to someone. Little pitch: "It's on the scourge that is our overuse and reliance on the word 'literally,' and what that means in terms of how we connect--or don't."
The Stone Roses were so good at some of their early shows--when they were breaking through--that people in attendance were almost intimidated by them. They reacted weirdly. "Still some tense people," Ian Brown chided the patrons at Walsall Junction in June 1989, before the band began what turned into an epic performance of "I Am the Resurrection."
It is painful when guys call the sports radio station. All of them. Idiots one and all. No exceptions. These are members of society? I know--they're no worse than anyone, and probably better than most. It hurts listening to them. I have to mute. It's embarrassing for them. Just how dumb and simple they are, but they think they're important giving their "take."
Until today, I had no idea that the hill in Boston Common is called Flagstaff Hill.
Greg Walker had a Diamond Kings card. Isn't that kind of funny? I liked him as a player, though. Pretty good fielder at first base as well.
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