Quick Takes
I’m irritated about titles today. I wrote a good flash fiction piece yesterday, but I don’t like either of the two titles I’ve tried. The first worked all right, but it wouldn’t draw attention in a table of contents. The second was more interesting, but I don’t know if it was any better. I went ahead and submitted it under the second title. It’s a good piece. Maybe it will be published anyway.
I also need a title for my thesis. This one bothers me a lot more. I have hopes of turning this into a novel that will see bookstore shelves. Unless I get lucky, I’ll have little say over cover art, so the title is my best shot at grabbing a reader’s eye (not to mention an agent’s eye, editor’s, publisher’s and so on).
Of course, as long as I think about it in those terms, I’ll probably feel too much pressure to come up with anything decent. I just need to think of it in terms of coming up with a cool code phrase I can use for personal shorthand. When I think of that, it’ll probably work well as a title too.
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Lori May spoke at our January 2010 residency, primarily about the literary community and social networking. She also read a few poems, my favorite of which was “Sleep”. While she was there, she asked for volunteers to be interviewed for a book she was writing, The Low-Residency MFA Handbook.
Part of my grad school mantra has been “volunteer for everything.” I raised my hand. This got me an e-mail with a number of questions about the Whidbey program, how I approached it, my workload and so forth. I must have answered well, because I’ve seen a copy of the book now and I’m quoted more than once. That may make me a bit biased, but I think it’s worth checking out if you’re considering an MFA.
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My friend and fellow Whidbeyite Steve White is self-publishing an alternate history novel, Outrageous Fortunes, for the Kindle, with other formats forthcoming. I’ll be keeping an eye on how it works for him, both out of hopes that he does well and my own consideration of it as a publishing venue. Follow the title link and check out the back cover blurb!
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Submissions Update: Since my last post, I have submitted to Ninth Letter, The Prose-Poem Project, Glimmer Train, The Midnight Diner, The Bellingham Review, Ideomancer, and an anthology.
