writing about hybrids

Halloween was a busy day for publications. "Raney's Imaginary Friend" seems to have come and gone pretty much unnoticed. Oh well. It was a reprint anyway, but it's a story I've always liked. I don't write much longform fiction. Working on some flash this past few weeks has reawakened my interest in flash fiction too. I've gotten rusty. I managed to come up with a flash that I hope Laura Black at FICTIVE DREAM will like and another one that I sent elsewhere.

An unexpected opportunity: "The Lunatics' Ball" might be included in a chapter on hybrids in a writing textbook. W.W. Norton would have to approve but for now the textbook writers would like a craft essay, and writing that has been rejuvenating. Even if they don't use it, writing about the project has helped me focus on why I'm doing it and the craft choices I've made.

For no reason at all: Van Gogh's "Corridor in the Asylum," which editors at separate publications used to illustrate one of my pieces and one of Steve's pieces. At around the same time if I remember right. We're a good match: apparently both mad. I'm not sure you'd know the light-filled corridor was in a mental asylum if you didn't know Van Gogh's story. A bit jumbled and chaotic in the foreground, a possibly infinite series of portals, but light-filled.

Vincent Van Gogh, "Corridor in the Asylum" (1889)