Thanks to Codex, the writers' group I belong to, I was able to write three shiny new pieces of flash fiction in January. All are currently out on submission, and hopefully will be available for your reading pleasure sometime in the coming months.
I must say it feels good to have something finished. Once the ball is rolling, and I'm back to writing (semi) regularly, it feels like this is a thing that can continue. Inertia is a force, an object in motion tends to stay in motion, etc. 2017 was paralyzing, in many ways. I can admit that my initial response to the state of the world was sustained horror, like watching a train wreck from the top of a nearby hill and being absolutely powerless to stop it. Or, if I'm honest, I'm not actually standing on the hill; I'm quite close to the track and am fairly sure that some piece of stray wreckage will be the end of me sooner or later. And though this response was quite long (too long, but there it is), I think now I've come round enough to begin to do something. And that thing is to write, to make art, to keep moving forward despite all the pieces of burning metal flying past my head.
As a forewarn, I am trying lately to write pieces that have a more hopeful tone. Don't read too much into that statement, however, as I find that generally what comes out of my head is quite dark. I am making the effort, though, sifting through the debris and ash for little bits of green. There are generally two responses to disaster: paralyzed fear, or determined action. To write nothing but despair might exorcise some of the demons from my own brain, but it really helps no one else. I want to work on trying to imagine a world that's not hurtling toward complete self-annihilation. Humanity desperately needs some path forward that doesn't end in fire and brimstone. As a species we're just as capable of great good and wonder as we are of horror and destruction.
We may all go down with the ship yet, but I'm not going without a fight.
Later on this week I plan on releasing another story. Look for it on the Lagniappe page.