acceptance from the cabinet of heed, resisting doubt, embracing cosmic coincidences

A very uncharacteristic flash with a dog and a happy ending, inspired by a prompt at the Kathy Fish Fast Flash Extravaganza. I really had no idea where to send "The Red Ball," so I was pleased when it was accepted by the cool Irish zine THE CABINET OF HEED. Coming out in mid-January.

A mantra for the new year, something I just read in an interview with Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, whose book THE FACT OF A BODY I really liked:

"Just revise, revise, revise, revise, revise. Also, it’s important to know that doubt is not fatal. This is advice for those of us who have a tendency to really doubt or critique the work before it’s even found its fledgling voice on the page. You can do the work even through doubt. Even while feeling the doubt. It’s important to acknowledge that the doubt might be a reflection of your own fear and not a reflection of the quality of the work. Some days are awesome, and you feel all the strength and power, and think, 'I can totally write this story!' And other days are not like that at all. But that’s what I would recommend: Don’t allow the doubt to prevent you from writing."

I got my grades in on Tuesday night. My study is a sea of paper and folders, revised and half-revised Lunatics flash, various versions of the end of the newly-revised-but-not-yet-finished long essay on Hartmut's death, and I have no idea what to send to F(R)ICTION though it's been a while since they solicited work. I'm not feeling inclined to revise or to write this week, and I'm still worried about how the Lunatics flash will fit together, but all that's okay, right? 

Vincent Van Gogh, "Corridor in St. Paul Hospital" (1889)

So strange that NOR: NEW OHIO REVIEW used this Van Gogh painting of the asylum in the South of France where he was hospitalized when they posted an excerpt from my essay "Haunting Houses" on Facebook, and then THE NASIONA used the same painting when they posted Steve's new essay "I Saw It All." And here I am writing about lunatic asylums.

On Wednesday, I googled Steve's name, which I never do, and ran into Tupelo Hassman's Facebook and twitter posts on Steve's NASIONA essay just hours after she'd put them up. He discovered her email about the essay when he got home, an email partly about cosmic coincidences. Of which there are many.