What’s up yall!

Please enjoy this rewrite of a story I posted here earlier. I had to clean it up for writing group, and it’s in every way improved, if I do say so myself. Content warning: this story deals pretty heavily with sexual assault.

Luckily for everyone (my housemates, the cars next to my car at a stop light, people afflicted with walking past me when I’m singing tunelessly) I’ve expanded to be able to listen to about three songs a week.

This week’s songs are Nina Simone’s Sinnerman (Manic, uninhibited. Fast as I’ve always wanted to go)

Mariah Carey’s Fantasy (in the running for catchiest bop of my childhood)

And Chappel Roan’s album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (not a song, I know, but worth a listen.)

The house finches are building a nest on the west porch of Spice House. They’re quite obnoxiously exuberant. Who could blame them? Ten years til we’re all underwater. God bless you all.

what’s up yall, happy daylight savings / Ramadan / summer… daylight savings is really hitting this year…

please enjoy this little ditty.

This weekend my computer went on the fritz and I was inspired to write by the collection of short stories Whatever Happened to Interracial Love by Kathleen Collins. [My computer went on the fritz and I went to the Half-Priced books by the Apple store.] Collins is primarily known as a filmmaker, and I like her stories because they often have a strong framing device, and the way she plays with POV gives her stories more emotional weight. And they’re very visual, go figure. The eponymous one is the only one available online, but The Uncle goes hard.

In other updates, I am writing a mystery novella. Actually, I am doing research and plotting and making visual aids until the end of July, when I can take three weeks off and retreat up North and write four hours a day. [And then jump in the lake]

So don’t expect frequent updates here, except when little ditties like this come to me. The story is set in 1920s Kankakee, Illinois. (!) This is the first time I’ve had to make a Zotero tab for a piece of fiction, yall. It is, in fact, my first mystery story and my first piece of historical fiction. It’s a project almost bigger than I am… almost.

Thanks to my Aunt Laura for telling me the family history of What Happened in Kankakee. And for giving me house keys when I most needed a place to go. I have taken significant liberties with the family history. The keys I keep with me.

Enough palavering. Gotta go to work!

PS. There are two types of people- people who listen to music and people who listen to one song for a month. The song of March is Ant Pile by Dominic Fike.