Short Story Collection!

So, I'm thinking of putting together a short story collection. I'm thinking of naming the collection Los Angeles/ The Angels, or something along those lines, when I combined the style and themes of my writing with the fact that I noticed that there are always beautiful women in my stories. One of my stories is titled 'Los Angeles,' so it's appropriate. (The one I started yesterday and is going swimmingly.) The fact that some of my stories are half spanish/ half english, and all of my stories have a feel of escape and travel, make the bilingual title work, I think. When I met up with Prof. Chaon last February, he mentioned the idea of 'ghosts,' and then hinted more at the idea of 'spirits,' and I think the latter is more what's going on with my stories: there's a certain pull, a certain magic, but more of a charming, beautiful sort than something spooky or fatally sad. The only truly sad people are my narrators, and by the ends of the stories, there is always some sort of feel of redemption even for them (hence why 'angels' seems a bit appropriate).

Readings!

And now, my new readings!

The Cider House Rules by John Irving, and
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane!

I e-mailed Prof. Hall for philosophy recommendations, so I'll be picking either one of his or Prof. M. Thomson-Jones's recommendations next week, in philosophy (either ethics or metaphysics, respectively).

Now I am off to a Mark Knopfler concert! Must go! (With FA-LA-FELS!)

Scratch Contest

I totally just submitted 'The Mortgage' to www.scratchcontest.net. I think I might have done it wrong, though, because they were really unclear about the submission dates and their different contests...So I either applied for the monthly one...or the quarterly one...We'll see...I paid $10 for the entry, so whichever entry is worth ten bucks, that's the contest I applied to. Here's a short excerpt from 'The Mortgage':

The intoxication is as heavy as the flowers sitting in our kitchen and as the air outside. That’s what it’s like. You pour yourself another glass of wine and I watch you, waiting for you to return to my side. This is what it’s like. This is what it’s always been like, Ellen. You know that.

Oscar Wao, etc.

So, I just wrote a beautiful entry on Bertrand Russell (and also on Oscar Wao, which was not as kind), but I accidentally deleted it, and there was nothing I could do to get it back. So, that is kind of sad. But, anyway, I will summarize what I said, which was something like this:

On The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (by Junot Diaz): I didn't like it very much, mostly because the author was trying to do way too much. There were a lot of things he didn't know, and he tried to cover it up with different narratives, but that just ended up sounding kind of awkward. If you haven't read any bicultural stuff and want to get a start, or are interested in books related to the Dominican Republic, then I'd say read it. Otherwise, there are other books in the bicultural/hispanic vein that are far better, and more polished. However, it's a short read, and entertaining (especially at the beginning, where it's very fresh), so since it's summertime, I'll recommend it as a summer read. Most of the problems were structural, but I think topic was also a problem: Diaz was doing too many things, and with such a short book! It annoys me that he got so much credit from critics for talking about so much cultural stuff, when what would have probably helped the book so much would have had it be an important part of the book, as opposed to the entire point of writing it.

I'm also finishing up a volume of Bertrand Russell's essays, and those are fucking (s)excellent. He writes very beautifully, with wondrous and complex arguments, and yet with a prose-like style that retains the personality and rhythm of good prose, but is not lost within itself because it is held together by the strong structure of logic. (I'm not very good at being logical, but Russell's big into that.) Even though I'm not very interested in religion, he writes so well that his essays are worth reading in this book. The essays I've enjoyed the most are "Why I Am Not a Christian" (the very famous title essay), "What I Believe," "Nice People" (a hilarious sarcastic piece), and "Our Sexual Ethics." Even with the essays I didn't enjoy entirely, they all had little gems of beauty within them. He's also very idealistic--even more idealistic than I am! I guess, perhaps, that's why his writing is so beautiful, in the end. Even though he sees the murky mess of problems, he can still see the solution shining through behind them, and more importantly, a certainty that these solutions will eventually break through. So even in the dirtiest of problems, you can find little things that make the entire existence of humanity worthwhile. I should stop while I'm at it on Russell, except to say that, I totally understand now more than ever why so many girls were shagging him. (Plus he was all, women should have sex with whomever they want.)

Having read these two books has made me decide that I really should just cut out the substory from the botany book. I'm going to keep in the actual events from the substory (it's just a story fifteen years earlier, from when the husband and wife met), but they will be seen only from the husband's fifteen-years-later view. I was, as Diaz had done, trying too much, and it wasn't worth it, with the really amazing voice that the husband character has developed. He doesn't even yet have a name, and I am in love with him. Having read Woolf and Russell have done very good things for this book, so I should see who else they hung out with so I can get better at putting all of this together. I'll have to cut some chapters, unfortunately, so while three weeks ago I had five chapters, I'll now only have two. But I have less to write, as well, so that's good. Here's an excerpt:

She slowly lowered the book on the ground, got a hold of my hands, and returned the favor by slowly sliding her lips against my knuckles, palm, wrists, taking one hand and then the other, possessing my hands in hers greedily and lovingly, like fruit in sweltering summer. Yet the weather tonight was not unbearable; the breeze came in time by time to whisper along with my own words against her ears, fingers fumbling through her wild head of hair, pulling closer and closer our sutural substance: souls saved by touch and rhythmic breath.

See why I'm in love with my narrator?

Extra Extra

EXTRA EXTRA:

This week:
July 22- http://www.scratchcontest.net/
July 23- http://www.opiummagazine.com/

This month:
July 31- Best of Ohio Writer Contest (for residents of Ohio, only). http://www.pwlge.com/
July 31- Glimmer Train Family Matters Contest. http://www.glimmertrain.org/
July 31- http://www.munsterlit.ie/
July 31- http://www.writingawards.com/

Voila!

Extra Extra

EXTRA EXTRA:

This week:
None

This month:
July 22- http://www.scratchcontest.net/
July 23- http://www.opiummagazine.com/
July 31- Best of Ohio Writer Contest (for residents of Ohio, only). http://www.pwlge.com/
July 31- Glimmer Train Family Matters Contest. http://www.glimmertrain.org/
July 31- http://www.munsterlit.ie/
July 31- http://www.writingawards.com/

Voila!

Henry Miller, etc

Henry Miller's The Tropic of Cancer was awesome. Recommend it to anyone who won't hate a book if it's racist/ sexist/ intolerant, etc. The guy's got a heart, guys (sort of). Anyway, the writing was spectacular, so, that was awesome. I'm finishing up The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (read it on the busride back from NYC, no air conditioning for four hours, yikes!), and will be reading Bertrand Russell in a few days! Oh, joy!

My writing...let's not talk about that. I'm totally, entirely behind. But I started writing a story sort of based off one of my mom's Uruguayan friends who I found hot this one time in LA and all they talked about at dinner was school shootings from their childhood, laughing about it the entire time.

Harris, just by talking and being himself, has been somehow helping me lots with writing lately. It's awesome.