Have you ever asked your one-armed ping pong opponent whether he's right-handed or left-handed? Don't.
My story Photography is in the new JMWW. It's another one about a husband and wife who are nothing like me and my wife. Repeat: there are no similarities between the wife in my stories and the wife in my life. None. I know that's hard to believe but it happens to be true. I don't know why I'm telling you this. My wife doesn't read my stories - honestly I don't think she's read anything I've published - reading in English isn't really her thing - so I'm not protecting myself from her disapproval. I must be protecting myself from something though. Maybe my own disapproval. Maybe I'm leaving notes to my future self - who may not be quite the benevolent freak you are hearing from today.
I've been publishing a lot of stories about a husband and wife lately. They talk a lot. They have arguments. They comfort and help and torture each other in mind-boggling ways. I wrote all those stories a year ago, one after another. But I still don't know who those people are! I keep thinking about them. I want to write more stories about them. I easily could. But I feel like it might be a bad idea. Like, maybe I should just leave them alone. Don't badger them. So I've been writing other things. Things that are very different from those stories. But I'm tempted to go back for more. A strange temptation. It's like a form of writerly gluttony. I don't want to gorge and make myself sick. I also don't want people to get sick of reading about the same two characters - though I'm not sure they are always the same two characters.
I haven't read all the other stories in the new JMWW, but I read the first one - When I Pulled Her Out of the Water. It's really good. I was a little pissed off when I realized I hadn't written it myself. Then it ended, which also pissed me off - because I hate hearing about how a short story could have been a novel, if only the writer had kept going. It sounds like you're saying there's something wrong with the story as it is, that it's not really a short story at all but the beginning of some longer work, a fetal novel, but in this case - yes, I wanted that story to keep going. And for all I know it IS the beginning of a longer work. I hope so. There, I'm a hypocrite now too. Add it to the list.
So check out the new JMWW. Tell me what you think about Photography.
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI love your story Photography. As does my wife. Really enjoying reading your stuff, it's fantastic, very funny, but not just funny. I thought I should pass on our praise and thanks because I know writers need that from time to time, right? Where's the novel? Also we love reading about the husband and wife.
Thanks Ben. Glad you like em, and it's great to know I've got a couple of readers in Australia. I've cracked the southern hemisphere! I've got a few more of these husband and wife stories that should be coming out somewhere or other - not sure when - and the first three chapters of my novel Zero will be in issue 3 of Sententia magazine. It's supposed to be out soon I think. Don't know about the rest of the novel though. Someday. It's finished, and has been for a year or two, but I haven't sent it anywhere or even shown it to anyone - except for those first three chapters. I found the energy to write the thing, but I'm too lazy to send it to someone who might publish it. Anyway thanks very much for the encouragement. I've been in a bit of a writerly slump lately (something to do with having to work for a living) and need to bust out of it before my head explodes. Hope all's going well for you and your family - and, hey, you look pretty crazy in that newspaper photo!
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