What I Read:
Little Dorrit (1855-57). Charles Dickens. My least favourite novel by my favourite writer.
One Day This Pain Will be Useful to You (2007). Peter Cameron. Another excellent read by a writer I will keep reading.
Short stories: from Rollick lit mag: “This Is What You Do” by Warren P. Genesis (battling alcohol addiction through one’s 20s and 30s); “What I Can No Longer See” by Amy Lerman (a woman who’s in remission from cancer becomes pregnant at the same time as her mare, and her husband wonders if the cancer is back); “Girls” by Natalie Wee (a young woman reveals that she’s in love with her female best friend, and two years on her best friend wants to ‘try and see where it goes’).
From One Story: “K” By Puloma Ghosh; “Breastmilk” by ‘Pemi Aguda; “Guerrilla Warfare” by Sanjay Agnihotri; “Staff Picks” By George Singleton; “The Everest Society” By Shannon Sanders; “The Remains” By Laura Spence-Ash.
What I Wrote:
Finished third draft of “Growing Pains” and sent it to writing partners for critiques. Got a couple of critiques. Needs a little more work.
For my short story collection, replanned rewrites of “Fault” (published in Commuter Lit as a 4k) and “Shoes” (drafted as a 1k); created new outlines; redrafted “Fault” (17k).
Participated in my first writing workshop, One Story’s “How to Write A Great Beginning” led by Will Alison. Good experience. Useful new constructs and tools and potential critique partners.
Rewrote “Impulse” (1k) as a 3k after it was accepted for publication by Bewildering Stories.
Drafted micros: “Love,” “Don’t Tell,” and “Love Addicts Anonymous.”
Drafted 1ks: “The Price” & “Getting Lost.” Very rough and/or partial drafts.
What I Published:
“Impulse” (3k) was accepted for publication by Bewildering Stories.
Worked on edits of “Night” (3,800 words) with The Dalhousie Review.
Worked on edits of “Courage Anniversary” (2100 words) and “Re:Birth” (3,500 words) with the very amiable and competent student editors at Caustic Frolic.
“The City” (4k) was accepted for publication in Bamboo Ridge Issue #124 (45th Anniversary Issue).
“Let the Wine Mature” (600 words), a short essay on the craft of writing, was accepted for publication, and published, in The Writer Shed’s Medium edition.
“The Doll” was published in Fairfield Scribes Micro.
“Afterwards,” “DIY,” and “Sunday Afternoon” were accepted for publication by Fairfield Scribes Micro.
How I Fared:
Contracted two episodes of cold and cough. This is very rare for me. I suspect the horrible air quality – from my years in Allahabad, that was the main cause of my allergies and frequent colds and coughs. I resumed running recently, and am loth to have to give it up again. Perhaps I shall try to run in the afternoons when the smog has lifted and air quality is a little better. Indoor exercise remains an option, but nothing compares to running.
Enjoyed my first writing workshop.
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PORTFOLIO of published and upcoming works
Amita Basu 