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