OCCASIONAL NOTES
Backstory -- The estimable Fr Gulligan ("Mike" to his
friends) would only go so far in relieving me of hands-on involvement
with this site (which I was about to abandon for any number of reasons
before he took over). "One
page." It
was not a request. My mind's ear heard ghostly childhood echoes of "if
I can go to the trouble of making dinner, the least you can do is
eat it." Here is my latest report.
BARBIE'S NEW JOB
As mentioned in
my Apri
BARBIE'S NEW JOB
An additional short story has been installed
in Orphans Eleven: Until
Next Tuesday (behind
the ZINE button). What kind of a story? I'm the wrong person to ask.
What I know is that it began as a birthday story for my youngest
sister, Mary Jo. The design requirements were dictated by my dear
mother: it had to involve a chair, a stuffed polar bear and a stuffed
bunny. That it does. The tale has evolved somewhat...the latest edition
is now online.
NIGHT FUNNELS, THE NOVEL
Novelizing a story (Rich Horton
says it's actually a novelette -- see his comment below) that first
appeared in Gabe Chouinard's
S1ngularity zine a few years ago hasn't been quite
as easy as I'd fantasized. Duh. I thought I'd just whip it out. Silly me.
With the YA-oriented tale up to 95,000 words I had occasion to write a one-page
synopsis, which was handy for plotting the mind-boggling climax and
denoument. All of a sudden I don't detest synopsizing quite as much.
Funny how that happens.
ABOUT THE ORIGINAL "SHORT" STORY
On the Speculative
Literature Foundation website,
Rich Horton reviews online sources of fiction. About S1ngularity and
Night Funnels, he says...
Gabe Chouinard started this webzine last spring [2002],
but quickly ran into trouble (he's had some rather wrenching personal
problems, according to his blog). He is currently pondering whether
to continue it. I saw three new stories, all quite interesting: Gavin
Grant's "Softly,
With a Big Stick", Michael Jasper's "Gunning for the Buddha",
and E. T. Ellison's "Night Funnels". These total some 15,000
words, with the Ellison story being novelette-length. I liked "Night
Funnels" best: it's an odd story set in a very colourful fantasy
world, where "funnel fairies" pour ideas into people's heads
at night.
Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, editors of fantasy for 17th
Annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, made a similar observation in
their discussion of fantasy
stories published online.
S1ngularity came and went -- although editor
and agent provocateur Gabe Chouinard claims it will rise again. The
most interesting story published there was E. T. Ellison's Night
Funnels.
Thanx for those encouragements, folks!
ETE |