Stories! And writing-related links
A Pilgrimage to the God of High Places by Marissa Lingen, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mrissa. I liked the direct sensory writing, and how it turned out. Yay agency!
How Sara Found the Possum That Held Time in Its Pouch Under Her Porch, Then Lost It by S. L. Harris. More great sensory writing. This story reminded me of Pocosin by Ursula Vernon, in the best way.
Islands of Stability by Marissa Lingen,mrissa. Science-fiction about what it means to age well.
Let Them Freeze in the Dark by Paul Drye, riffing on A Pail of Air by Fritz Lieber. I read this as a kid and clearly remembered the hidey-hole and reason for it, but had entirely forgotten the rest of the plot.
I write too much longfic. AMA by roland,headstone.
What I think about when I edit by Eva Parish.
Document: The Symbolism Survey by Sarah Funke Butler
mrissa. I liked the direct sensory writing, and how it turned out. Yay agency!How Sara Found the Possum That Held Time in Its Pouch Under Her Porch, Then Lost It by S. L. Harris. More great sensory writing. This story reminded me of Pocosin by Ursula Vernon, in the best way.
Islands of Stability by Marissa Lingen,
mrissa. Science-fiction about what it means to age well.Let Them Freeze in the Dark by Paul Drye, riffing on A Pail of Air by Fritz Lieber. I read this as a kid and clearly remembered the hidey-hole and reason for it, but had entirely forgotten the rest of the plot.
I write too much longfic. AMA by roland,
headstone.I don’t claim particular expertise or authority on writing longform fiction, but it is factually true I have spent a lot of my one wild and precious life on it.
What I think about when I edit by Eva Parish.
Recently, someone asked me how I edit. What am I looking for? How do I know what changes to make? That made me stop and think about what I’ve been doing semi-instinctually.
Document: The Symbolism Survey by Sarah Funke Butler
In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked.
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Thanks for the links!
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I read "Islands of Stability" and was expecting some twist (or revelation) at the end, but the last paragraph is so vague I'm left wondering what Lingen intended with it. If grandma isn't some kind of vampire, she's saying that long life is a result of just really being into something, which feels anticlimactic and also a little hurtful to suggest all our dead just weren't attached enough to life. Your thoughts?
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ETA: Went back and read it, and I can see your reading of it, but I still hear mine. I hear this sort of mixed attitude toward living a long time, like maybe it isn't actually better than the alternative, eventually. Or maybe I'm projecting my own attitude, which is, living to 123 sounds exhausting.
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I read it again, too, and I can see the moment where the narrator wonders if granny isn't as happy as she appears, despite her popular businesses and many friends, and I like your reading that she intentionally seeks out things to be interested in to keep herself busy because living that long could get boring. That seems like a valuable lesson at any age, but also just really basic. And then the story glosses over how anyone could afford to live that long, something nearly unimaginable in our current society, and I'm left wondering what the point was. I normally like Lingen's work, but I guess this missed the mark for me.
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