We found ourselves with no
Internet the last couple of days of 2015 and a better part of the first week of
this year. At first, I was unhappy that I’d miss so much, but I readjusted to a
Luddite existence quickly.
On the one hand, I missed
the instant access I have to my friends across the globe (and I mean actual
friends with whom I have ongoing relationships). On the other hand, there was
an easy-going, peaceful aura about everything.
We lost the ability to
stream and were suddenly stuck with bad TV we'd seen eons ago!—but even this
was a source of giddiness and we laughed a lot.
I took the opportunity to
do a little reading but I did no writing. I also did not edit or reread any of
the stories going into the next collection, He
Done Her Wrong. I was in a fairly festive mood and did not want to give any
more thought to infidelities or its aftermath.
Get your copy at Amazon, if you haven't yet!
In the next couple of
weeks, I will return to the beat and have an interview to set up that will give
me unprecedented access to the aftermath of an affair by a willing participant
(willing to become part of my research, I mean).
Her first-hand experiences
will serve as lynchpins to a story I wanted to write. The story itself may not
belong in the next volume, but I am interested in a different perspective and
it suggests not only this but a series of stories with a skewed perspective.
Is skewed the word I necessarily mean, though?
For a gallery of Fabián Pérez's beautiful work, visit
It worries me, suddenly,
whether I have been properly neutral in my portrayals or if I have allowed
judgement to affect the storytelling. Judgement changes it. Judging makes it
propaganda and that was never the point.
That some of the stories
should have a distinct focus is one thing, but to participate in moral
favoritism is just boring, and a little dangerous. It’s also uninspired and
obnoxious. Storytelling should be more flexible or else it’ll miss the poetry
of a moment.
Judgement belongs to (and
rests with) the reader and, you could try to influence her, but if you use a
sledge hammer to drive a point that matters to you because you feel it is the
ultimate truth, then you need to be a preacher not a storyteller.
Then again, if you choose
to preach, then you must live the word or forever be a hypocrite.
I am perfectly happy with
stories that have no moral center and no message. I am happy to tell a story
simply because there might be an instant that captures pure magic--even if there
is no transformation beyond capturing the instant and letting it die in the
tongue, the mind’s eye, or your gut.
Coming up, there might be a
story or two where the protagonist is the one who perpetuates the infidelity
and survives the moment to tell their story—whether defiantly or in penance. I’d like to affect the push/pull of a good tango but with words, that’s the skewed delivery of words I am chasing in my head. After all, it does take two to tango!
That’s the plan, anyway.
What are your reading/writing plans for the New Year?
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