May 2023 Notes
Notes from the Fiction Factory - Month in Review
May was a good month!
Quick “hello” to the 40 new subscribers who deemed this little newsletter worthy of their time. And a paid subscriber too? Aw shucks. Whether it was the articles, essays, or fiction that brought you here, welcome and thanks for reading! If you’ve been with me since the beginning, bless you! I appreciate everyone here who takes the 5 minutes out of their day to read up on my writing.
Now down to business.
Words Written
Practice, Practice, Practice was the theme for last month. A few false starts, but I published a story before Memorial Day weekend.
A superhero fantasy story titled A Golden Age. Two retirees, a hero and a villain, meet for coffee at their local diner.
Check it out below.
A Golden Age
Mickey's Diner was the last place on earth for an old-fashioned, American breakfast. The kind where the eggs are cooked in tubs of butter and bacon fat and the overweight cook knows you by name; a small enough hole-in-the-wall to keep the riff-raff and tourists at bay, the kind where the menu is written out by hand using a cheap BIC pen on paper snugged…
Stories Read
I read thirty short stories, one novel, and a novella in May. Not bad. I list them below and give each a rating based on my personal taste.
Short Fiction:
Alive And Well And On A Friendless Voyage - Harlan Ellison (3.5/5)
All The Birds Come Home to Roost - Harlan Ellison (5/5)
Opium - Harlan Ellison (5/5)
The Other Eye of Polyphemus - Harlan Ellison (4/5)
The Executioner of The Malformed Children - Harlan Ellison (3/5)
Shatterday - Harlan Ellison (5/5)
Dress of White Silk - Richard Matheson (3/5)
The Possibility of Evil - Shirley Jackson (3/5)
Kittens - Dean Koontz (5/5)
There Is Danger - Ray Vukcevich (4/5)
Spud Wrangler - Kent Patterson (4.5/5)
Cooties - J. Steven York (4/5)
Nanoturds - Ray Vukcevich (4/5)
Women Are Like Streetcars - O'Neil De Noux (5/5)
Shadows On The Moon - Kristine Kathryn Rush (4.5/5)
One Last Gift - Jerry Oltion (3/5)
The Ghost The Machine - Jerry Oltion (3.5/5)
Group - Ray Vukcevick (2/5)
Broken Glass - Harlan Ellison (4.5/5)
Paladin of the Lost Hour - Harlan Ellison (5/5)
Something Falls in the Night - Desiree Cooper (4/5)
Seconds - Terese Svoboda (4/5)
Exotics - Dantiel W. Moniz (3.5/5)
How Many - Bryan Washington (2/5)
Not Daniel - Deesha Philyaw (3.5/5)
Beach Town - Amy Hempel (4/5)
When Chase Prays Chocolate - Christopher Allen (4.5/5)
The Gospel of Guy No-Horse - Natalie Diaz (3/5)
Footsteps - Harlan Ellison (5/5)
On The Slab - Harlan Ellison (5/5)
Novels/Novellas
The Last Irving - Max Brand (3.5)
Under the Black Ensign - L Ron Hubbard (4)
The goal for May was to fully immerse myself in the works of other fiction writers. First for pleasure, then for study. I came across this great post1 that speaks to this, though far more eloquently, from Chynna Pace.
Fun Stuff
Always fun visiting my local library and finding gems. Picked up a book on writing short fiction from science fiction writer and founder of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Association, Damon Knight
Also, picked up a collection of John Cheever stories. Should be a good time.
May 2023 is in the books. There are plans in the work for June that I’m excited to announce, hopefully in a few weeks. Stay tuned.
Now back to the writing and studying of fiction.
Till next time.
Nice work Frank!
Good post. And thanks for the nod to the Journal, Frank.