Everything published at once: "Medusa Reflects" in So to Speak, "Charlotte's puzzle" in Persimmon tree

Everything always happens at once, but especially now, it seems, when the UK Flash Flood supplied 150 or so great flash to read, and new issues of some stellar flash magazines just came out as well.

First, my flash "Medusa Reflects" in the online feminist journal SO TO SPEAK.

Right on its heels, my very short story "Charlotte's Puzzle" in PERSIMMON TREE. The editors decided to segment the story and I said okay, but now that I see it I think I would have preferred continuous text as in my original version.

My second publication in PERSIMMON TREE. I still like my first story there, "Mary Most Contrary," one of the few I've written that incorporates autobiographical details (maybe the feminist mother I wish I'd had).

I guess I'll hold off on posting these on social media. People will tire of me. The last couple of pubs also made me aware that I have a different audience on Facebook than on Twitter. The flash writers who read me on Twitter seem to prefer my darker, more unconventional stuff (maybe I do too). I feel weirdly reluctant to post stories like "Charlotte" there.

Speaking of Twitter, the flash writer Noa Sivan, whose work I love, and who often writes micros, came up with a list of contemporary flash writers whose work she likes in an interview she did with Tommy Dean. I was so touched to see my name on her list. "Jacqueline Doyle crushes me in less than a 100 words. She's an absolute ace." That should hold me for a while during my discouraged periods.

Steve and I BARTed into San Francisco yesterday to see the René Magritte exhibit at SFMOMA, which was wonderful. Also wandered into a weird and stirring video installation by Ghana-born British artist John Akomfrah called "Sublime Seas." Somehow visual arts are more directly inspiring for my writing than other media.

Love the art folios in MOM EGG REVIEW, SO TO SPEAK, and PERSIMMON TREE. I've always loved book art, and haven't run across Irmari Nacht's before. PERSIMMON TREE includes a number of them. I've pasted in two below.

This is from their editor's introduction: "Irmari Nacht recycles books that might otherwise be discarded; she transforms them into a series she calls 'SAVED.' As she cuts the books, sometimes into slivers that curl and undulate, they return to a tree-like shape, echoing the natural source from which the paper was made. They are often painted, moistened, re-formed, or distressed, and change from utilitarian objects to sculptural art. Since the words on the pages of the books are sliced, slivered, or torn and become interwoven with other slivers and slices, their original meaning is no longer clear. But the words are still there – creating new information now obtained by reading only the letters that are visually available. Lately, her books have exploded from their spines: a four-inch book has grown to 24 inches  through a series of cuts and spirals, reaching out to the viewer with subliminal messages."

Irmari Nacht, 911/72 in Persimmon Tree (Summer 2018)

Irmari Nacht, 50 Ways in Persimmon Tree (Summer 2018)