the last one : a cautionary tale

return to me : october project

click here to listen

listening time: 4m 17s

and now for something really gnu...i got a "flash fiction" published in a literary zine. read the story, called the last one, at cautionarytale. and after you do (or even if you don't), listen to the song i'm posting, return to me, by the defunct new york band october project. i'm not sure why...i guess i'm just using this occasion as a convenient excuse to get this stirring song on my blog. i was quite disturbed by the voice and mood of the song when i first heard it -- it is otherworldy, almost like a plea to bring a departed loved one back to life.

anyway, the last one started when one member of a forum i frequent challenged others to write a short story that uses the word "bubbles," the line "i thought that was the last one," and takes place at night. i took the challenge and wrote one on my boat ride home. it turns out that she's a writer and web artist who had been given that assignment by the editor of one of the zines to which she regularly contributes. dorothy lang, who also edits the travel-themed subsidezine, sent the editor my story and voila! my first online literary gig -- all of 248 words of it.

more than anything else, i'm tickled by the fact that other writers appreciated it and thought it was good enough for others to read. i've always felt insecure about my short stories and poems, which is why i'd never submitted any of them to any publication. this gives me a bit of an encouragement, at least to keep on pursuing the kind of writing i've always wanted to do, but never nourished.