Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Flash Piece, "Ambien Beatle," published in Oddball Magazine

     I'm grateful that my friends at Oddball published my story (click link >>>>), "Ambien Beatle," but I want to talk about the evolution of how my mind moved in order to write that story. It's a long strange trip.

      Let's talk about the sleep aid, Ambien first. It can make you do funny things while you're supposed to be asleep, such as binge eating, walking across town, and as in the Rep. Patrick "I wasn't drinking" Kennedy case, become a zombie and crash your car.
There is a funny comic online which satires the Ambien experience called The Ambien Walrus.  

I love this comic!
  

 When a friend spoke about insomnia, I recalled these stories when she spoke of perhaps needing a prescription for Ambien. Which led me to singing. Funny, how puns and wordplay become things to sing, but I found myself singing the words ambien walrus to the Beatles "I Am The Walrus."










  
     So I expanded this wordplay forming a flash fiction piece for which incorporates a truck load more lyrics from Beatles songs, written in a dream-like state. I bet you can find at least 10-15 different songs in the piece.

     It's not the first time I've played with lyrics in flash fiction. In 2009, Monkeybicycle published Pretty Flamingo, and in 2012 JMWW published This Tornado Loves You. And to think, I took my first poetry course to improve my own lyrics. 

Sunday, January 12, 2020

All Fiction links from WHLR 2016-present.

UPDATED TO INCLUDE APRIL 2020

The New Wilderness House Literary Review came out last week and I enjoy being their fiction editor.
I'd like to share the fiction selected from 2016- Jan 2020. There are many fine reads from many fine writers within these links. So get to it.



WHLR 57th issue (Volume 15, no 1) - April 2020


WHLR 56th issue (Volume 14, no 4) - January 2020



WHLR 55th issue (Volume 14, no 3) - October 2019

WHLR 54th issue (Volume 14, no 2) - July 2019

WHLR 53th issue (Volume 14, no 1)   April 2019

WHLR 52th issue (Volume 13, no 4)  January 2019

WHLR 51th issue (Volume 13, no 3)  October 2018

WHLR 50th issue (Volume 13, no 2)  July 2018

WHLR 49th issue (Volume 13, no 1)  April 2018

WHLR 48th issue (Volume 12, no 4)  January 2018

WHLR 47th issue (Volume 12, no 3)  October 2017

WHLR 46th issue (Volume 12, no 2)  July 2017

WHLR 45th issue (Volume 12, no 1)  April 2017

WHLR 44th issue (Volume 11, no 4)  January 2017

Serving in that role from 2008-2010, I listed  every piece of fiction  I selected during that time span.