Friday, July 29, 2011

Monkeybicycle, The Short Review, and me!

This has been a surprising week for me with two stories coming out as well as a review of Pomegranate Stories over at The Short Review.

"Running the Fence" is up at Monkeybicycle today. I write fiction instead of  memoir because my memories are somewhat hazy, but the channel and sump mentioned in "Running the Fence" really did exist and a boy in my class at Calle Mayor School did drown in the sump.  His name was Ronnie Middlecoff and along with an assortment of kids on our block, we'd ride bikes, roller skate, play kick ball, girls taunting boys and boys teasing girls. Then the boys ripped wheels off of their skates and nailed them to pieces of cast off wood to make skateboards and life kept moving on.

I seldom actually played with Ronnie. I ate my cheese sandwiches on Debbie Stinson's porch, and there were plenty of girls around our age.  Our street was a half-moon called Theo Drive on one end and Mayor Drive on the other, both emptying out on Calle Mayor.  I lived on the island created between the smaller street with two names and the busy main boulevard behind us.  On the other side of our arc behind that row of houses, was the fenced water channel and the sump.  Later when they built South High School, they removed the sump.

Almost every house had kids, so occasionally we would play together, but not often.  Still I have carried the memory of Ronnie's death not because we were best friends, but because he was the first young person I ever knew who died.  I didn't really think we could die (kids I mean) before that.  It shocked me, unbelievable.

I'm glad I've finally written a story about this.  I've tried to do it for a long time, but I just couldn't figure out how to do it.  As I said, my memory isn't great, he and I weren't really friends, but ye,t he been there, in the middle of our street, playing tag, or maybe it was hide and seek and then he was gone. He was only 10.


As for Pomegranate Stories, I am thrilled with the generous review Annie Clarkson has given it at The Short Review.  You can read her write-up here:

the short review: Pomegranate Stories 

And you can read the interview here:

the short review: Interview with Gay Degani

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

ORANGES at Every Day Fiction

My short piece, "Oranges," is up at Every Day Fiction. It came out on Tuesday so if you want to read it, use this link:  Oranges

You can leave comments if you'd like.  You just need to scroll down past the ad and click on Comments.

Friday, July 08, 2011

Breaking BAD is SOOOOO Good

Just watched  the final episode of last season's Breaking Bad.  If any of you have read Robert McKee's book "Story" and struggle with his concept of "the negation of the negation," you really should see this series from the beginning. If there was ever a terrific example of characters who start out being one certain kind of person with certain ethical limits who then must become another kind of person in order to survive--the total opposite of kind of person to what that person is supposed to be--and then, yes, is forced to go BEYOND even that to "the negation of the negation!" this show is that example. Creating characters who go through hell is exactly what the creator and writers of this series do.  It is amazing to watch this story unfold.  Season 4 starts next week. Rent 1-3, Tivo it, Netflix it, stream it, rob someone's stash of DVDs, just SEE it.

Friday, July 01, 2011

July EDF Calendar is Here!


7/1
Townsend Walker
It’s About a Moose?
7/2
Moana Brantwood
The Unwanted Wish
7/3
Charlotte Nash
The Two Boys
7/4
Mary Ann Back
Subdivision Smack-Down
7/5
Ruth Schiffmann
Deep Water
7/6
Annie Tupek
Eve of Destruction
7/7
Virgie Townsend
Even When
7/8
Gale Haut
Tentacular
7/9
Sandra Crook
Ouma and the Wood Pigeon
7/10
Sophie Playle
Screaming Red Paint
7/11
Stephen Duffin
Maud
7/12
Sylvia Hiven
Not Enough Venus
7/13
Wayne Scheer
A Good Citizen
7/14
Samantha Memi
Bouffant
7/15
Carla Sarett
For Better or Worse
7/16
A.I. Wright
Heaven for Heroes
7/17
Dean Giles
Harold Smalls’ Big Adventure
7/18
Paul Salvette
A Daughter’s Inquiry
7/19
Jeff Samson
Let The Bastards See Your Teeth
7/20
Michael Peralta
Scholar’s Mate
7/21
Randall Brown
Shades
7/22
Jamie Feldman
Rubber Boots
7/23
Jonathan Ruland
The Sounds in the Woods
7/24
Mary J. Daley
Long Ago and Far Away
7/25
Christopher Allen
…and Counting
7/26
Gay Degani
Oranges
7/27
Isabella Boettcher
Eggs
7/28
JR Hume
The Woman in Blue
7/29
Henry Lara
My Death in Three Parts
7/30
Mark Oliver
Great-Grandma’s Hands
7/31
Douglas Campbell
Dead In Blue Heaven