Bucketly Yours

-- Some indication that my IM/flash fiction correlation is probably not stupendous.

-- Voting has begun for the Million Writers Award. Please note: Although it's not technically a civic duty, this voting is a lot more fun than waiting in a long line to give someone your driver's license, be told you're in the wrong line, get into another long line, fill in some bubbles, feed a piece of paper into a giant blue box, and be handed an I VOTED!!! sticker by someone who is never less than 70 years old (just an observation, not a complaint) and gives one to your kid, even though your kid didn't vote.

-- Books people recommended to The Doorman. It seems like Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell and Italo Calvino are ALWAYS on lists like these. Again...just an observation, not a complaint.

-- Mint infused simple syrup is REALLY good in Diet 7Up. But I think it also crosses off the "Diet" part. Just an...ah, forget it.

-- Once again: If George Saunders had a TV network, I'd never change the channel. Speaking of which, have you heard about Hurl? When I did, it made me think of Min and Jade watching TV in "Sea Oak". (Also, don't forget...Hell's Kitchen is on tonight, and there's no one I'm rooting for except Petrozza.)

-- Someone got on me for not pimping myself enough, so here goes: A story I wrote is on this list, and I am very flattered. I liked Wigleaf already -- reading it was how I got the good news. Here's Mark Sarvas' interview with editor Scott Garson last month.

-- Erika and Tayari talk about abandoning their first novels. I have a finished draft of a short novel that's about televangelism and downgraded saints and fighting family members and mail order brides and, ultimately, aluminum siding. Technically it's not dead, but it's definitely frozen in carbonite.

-- These documents include articles on workmen's compensation and workplace safety; appeals for the founding of a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked veterans; and letters arguing relentlessly for a salary adequate to his merit.

-- Posts on reading coming soon. This book and this book, for starters. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Kim]

Ahh, thanks for the pointer back to "Sea Oak." "The Worst That Could Happen" is probably my favorite George Saunders notion ever, and I invoke it all the time. Last year, the state DOT put out a little computer-sim video of the ways in which the 520 bridge I cross every day might fall down, in an earthquake or severe storm...and this was all I could think of, watching little animated cars and trucks dropping into the lake.