What I Read:
Finished reading Alice Munro’s Best: Selected Short Stories (1994). Still studying this mistress of the craft for lessons. She has become after this one book one of my favourite writers.
Lowland (2013) by Jhumpa Lahiri. Really not a fan. How was I ever?
Othello (1604). Not a fan. Is Shakespeare overrated? My adoring adolescent self would be turning in my grave.
Travels with my Aunt (1969). Graham Greene. My first Greene. Very fun and brisk.
The Wisdom of Insecurity (1951). Alan Watts. Recommended by a friend. Quite a lot of mystical bullshit, and the arguments often have rubbishy logic. But the core message is useful – life is full of uncertainty; life is uncertainty, so stop running away from it, face it, sit with it.
Short stories:
Literally Stories:
“The Iceberg” by Paul Kimm
“Alfie” by Hugh Cron
“Cat of Hanley” by Dough Hawley
“Byrd’s Syndrome” by Dave Henson
“It Happens Every Other Sunday” by Irene Allison
“Underneath the Rose” by Irene Allison
Fiction on the Web:
“Spark of Life” by Sharon Frame Gay
The Guardian’s The Long Read:
“Is Richard Dawkins destroying his reputation?” by Sophie Elmhirst, 2015
“Why I might have done what I did: conversations with Ireland’s most notorious murderer” (i.e. Malcolm Macarthur) by Mark O’Connell, 2023
“Ngugi wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature” by Carey Baraka, 2023
“‘People are like, ‘Wow!’: The man trying to make condoms sexy” by Sophie Elmhirst, 2023
What I Wrote:
Explored the characters of “Fantasising,” both based straightforwardly on real-life models, though some of the events are madeup. Developed a detaield outline. Then worked out how to compress each chapter via a single-scene episodic narrative. A good exercise in compaction. Revised the outline. Drafted the story: currently a 25k.
Revised “Shoes” one (hopefully) last time.
Revised “Peace,” currently 4.5k. Deepened the characters; redid the ending; did a couple of rounds of editing. I still wasn’t happy with it, so I redid the outline, and revsied it – ready to redraft.
Began working on an outline for the revised version of “Sanctuary”; this story, published in its original version in Fearsome Critters, will now be combined with my notes for an unwritten story, “Getaway,” and thus will hew much closer to actual events.
Edited “Re:Birth” two last times for the collection, including an Indianisation of this story that was originally set in the U.S. This is the first story in the collection to be quite finished.
Edited “The City” a few more times. Ditto “All Creatures Great and Small,” “Night,” “The Why and the How,” and “Fish.” These stories are now ready for the collection. Well, “The Why and the How” may need one more going-over. Is any story ever really done?
Finished rereading “Fault.” Sent it out for critiques. Got one back; needs an edit! The old problem with my stories – there’s no fork in the road, thus not enough of a deep scoop of development. I think I can add some cutlery without much effort, but let’s see – the cutlery must be authentic.
Contacted a new critique partner, someone who submitted a story to Bewildering Stories that I reviewed; we exchanged our first round of critiques. A very erudite, wellspoken chap with an enviable vocabulary and a unique style of his own. His writing and mine share some of the same strengths and flaws, so this partnership will be interesting.
What I Published:
My short story “The Decision” was published in CommuterLit.
My microstory “Dig” was published in Fairfield Scribes Micro Issue 30.
My flash story “Backsides” was published in Literally Stories. This story was previously published in CEA Mid-Atlantic Review last year.
My short story “Retreat” was accepted for publication in The Metaworker; it will be out in some months.
My short story “Courage Anniversary” was accepted for publication in Literally Stories; it will be out this August. Previously published in CommuterLit and Caustic Frolic.
How I Fared:
Watched Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).
Rewatched How to Train Your Dragon parts 1 and 2; watched part 3.
Rewatched The Reader (2008).
Bewildering Stories, for whom I’ve been reading submissions for about a year, invited me to join the Review Board. I now get to cast my votes, along with my ten colleagues, on each quarter’s top pieces. We cast votes on all the pieces in every issue, and there’s one issue a week – so I will henceforth automatically be reading a lot more contemporary short fiction.
Two months into quitting my job, I’m having the best time of my life. Lots of writing and reading; getting my mental health back on track, and also getting back in better shape physically – running again, semi-regularly, and it is still my top passion after writing. Making time occasionally to listen to music. Reflecting on writing, on what makes a good story; also reflecting on life. Have revived and deepened friendships with some of the best people I’ve ever met. I feel happy, healthy, and grateful, more in touch with parts of myself that I had given up for dead. Now it is time to begin looking for work in my new field. I’ve already got a list of places to work through – but if you know of any place in India, working on conservation or conservation psychology, that can use behavioural/cognitive scientist, drop me a line and I’ll be in your debt.
END
Amita Basu 