anyar

CONFESSIONS OF A TYPING MONKEY

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Published: Postcard Shorts

Another flash story of mine, "Foresight", is now online at Postcard Shorts. This is another potential on-line venue for writers of ultra-short fiction. As the title suggests, submitted stories have to fit in a postcard sized panel (stated limit is 1500 characters, roughly 250 words). For more info, see their homepage, here.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Just in time for Christmas

The short fiction anthology, Story.Book, is now available from the publisher, Unbound Press. The upside: my most recent flash story, "Inspiration", is in it. The downside: you have to purchase directly from the publisher's UK website, and it's kinda clunky. But for a mere £10.80 (= $15.30) + shipping you get nearly 50 other stories, all prize winners—and you'll be helping to support a small press.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Published: 100 word story

Nothing like the imperative of self-promotion to bring me back to blogging. Just a quick note that a 100 word story of mine, "Interstate", is now online at...100 word story. I suggest that flash fiction fans and writers, if you haven't heard of it already, might want to check out the rest of this web journal, which is updated monthly. As the title suggests, all stories submitted are required to contain 100 words, no more, no less. Read, write, submit.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Mother's Day 2011

There's something about this picture of my mom that I really like. Taken in August 1942, before she got married; before my brother and I were even a concept, let alone conceived—before my father died, leaving her to raise us on her own—the photo shows her in simple, crisp attire, possibly dressed for work. She might be worried about something, or just letting her mind wander.

Julia Helen Pactovis Levery (1916-1998)

Not that she didn't absolutely love being our mother, nor that she ceased having an inner life when my brother and I were born (quite the contrary), but somehow I enjoy this mystery about her, from a time when we didn't know each other, a past life before motherhood and going to work primarily for her children's sake took the lion's share of her time and energy. Here, to my eyes, she appears thoughtful, unposed, her attention miles away from the process of being photographed. I have no idea where she is standing; the neighborhood is unfamiliar to me; and I am happy to leave this moment in my mother's life private and unreachable, hers alone.

While this is a day to remember mothers (which should of course be more than one day a year), my thoughts are especially with single mothers everywhere, because I was raised by one.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Japan

I was going to write something yesterday about the earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Japan on Friday. The initial shock at 2:46 pm (Tokyo time) was followed by repeated aftershocks, while waves as high as 30 feet inundated cities along the coast of northern Honshu, the largest island in Japan. The epicenter of the 8.9-magnitude quake, one of the most severe in recorded history, was about 100 miles east of Sendai, and 230 miles northeast of Tokyo. It was the biggest to hit Japan since they began keeping records in the 1800s. Millions around the world spent some part of Friday watching videos of the devastation on television and the internet. There is no lack of news about it, so there is no point recounting any further details here. I would only recommend that people motivated and able to donate to disaster aid organizations try the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders. I realize that Japan has the world's third largest economy, and my understanding is that they have not specifically asked for help; nevertheless, the disaster is extensive and these organizations, as well as others like them, are on the ground there.

Rant: Here is the part where I talk about what kept me from writing yesterday, and you can stop reading if you aren't interested in what pisses me off. Naturally, in trying to gather information about the disaster, I went to the internet, where there is plenty of news, along with more commentary than anyone could possibly handle. Some of what I read was certainly valuable, and for the most part the comment stream expressed only empathy and a desire to help. However, there is a segment of humanity (and I use the term loosely) that uses any occasion to vomit their ignorance and bile into the web. In this case, I am referring to hateful braindead comments to the effect that this disaster is some kind of karmic payback for Pearl Harbor. I got my first inkling on a visit to Pharyngula, who had appended to his post a collage of such comments culled from Facebook. "Tsunami/Pearl Harbor!!!Karma is a bitch" says one. "Apparently God hasn't forgotten about Pearl Harbor either...." says another. These are from people not too ashamed to have such shite posted under their real names with photos that show them to be under 30. It didn't take long to find others expressing similar sentiments. This is something only a total fuckwit would say: "...all of the Japanese people who are caught in that tsunami are totally the same ones who bombed pearl harbor/ordered it." It would be understandable, perhaps, if such comments came from WWII veterans or others whose losses during the war are still too painful to leave behind; it doesn't make sense coming from people born long afterwards. Pearl Harbor was 70 years and several generations ago. The Japanese people paid dearly for Pearl Harbor and even worse crimes committed up to and during WWII by the actual participants, who are mostly long gone. The rest of the world, while not forgetting the historical facts and human costs, has moved on.

Let's get it straight: there is no Karma and there is no God behind natural disasters. Japan is located along a subduction zone; there are others located, for example, off the coasts of North and South America. Last Friday it was Japan; tomorrow it could be the US. We live on a restless planet. Earthquakes happen because of Plate Tectonics; they are not due to the machinations of karma nor the wrath of some invisible all-powerful being who feels the need to punish homosexuals or some poor country that supposedly made a pact with the Devil in 1791. If there really were a God, idiots who promote and repeat such stupid and hateful ideas would be instantly struck by lightening or swallowed up by the earth like Dathan (Num 16:31). Unfortunately, they are not.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Glenn, don't forget the Packers...

are a non-profit, community-owned franchise. That's a collective, so I assume they fall into group three of Beck's New World Order...and ya know, how many of those cheeseheads could be hiding a kufi underneath? Well, actually, there wouldn't be anything wrong with that at all, not that Glenn would have any idea. In any case, collective ownership, that's so un-American, it couldn't possibly work! Oh, wait, didn't they just win Superbowl XLV? Not to mention 13 league championships altogether. Pretty suspicious, maybe they don't even win the American way, maybe they get their playbooks every year from the Muslim Brotherhood or, who knows, Karl Marx himself.

Glenn Beck explains how unions in Wisconsin are creating chaos "on the backs of the workers" (did I hear that right?)

Well, let's get a couple of things straight; the New World Order, Republican style, is no control over corporate lawlessness, no state or federal services, no funding for non-profit healthcare providers, especially if they're providing services to women, and definitely no unions. And right now the ones trying to get over on the backs of workers are Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Senate Republicans, in their blatant attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from state employees under the guise of balancing the budget. Yes, I think everyone understands that financial sacrifices have to be made to keep the the State afloat, but this isn't merely about wages and benefits, but legislating away the right to collective bargaining, which is a cornerstone function of worker's unions. I'm heartened by seeing state workers refusing to roll over (yes, Glenn, there was some angry rhetoric, but the protests at least through Friday, have been non-violent, and I didn't hear anyone threatening to bring guns if their wishes aren't granted); by the show of solidarity by the Firefighter's Union, the (albeit temporary, as it must be) protest departure of Senate Democrats; and, frankly, by the results of an opinion poll that shows the majority of Wisconsin residents oppose Walker's bill. Unfortunately, it looks like it will pass, and it is too late for those who granted the Republicans control of the State House, the Senate, and the Assembly, and who now say they disagree with the upcoming legislation, to take their votes back.

Nosing around Nørrebro (15)

Feeling lazy, so make up your own stories if you want. Random photos from the past couple of years, in no particular order:

"Rainbow" (Back of traffic sign, Sortedams Dossering, 11 April 2009)

A patron saint of something or other...? (Building on Blegdamsvej, overlooking Sankt Hans Torv, 14 February 2010)