MY FIRST STORY COLLECTION! OVER 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING!

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

MY DIABOLICAL PLANS FOR 2025


“MOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAHA!”


This calls for a mad scientist chortle. I’m getting ready for the new year.


And what a new year:


First, I’m not going to let the returning president get me down.  I’ve got better things to do. 


Next, I’m going to get more aggressive about finding a publisher for my novel, Zyx; Or, Bring Me the Brain of Victor Theremin. I’m rethinking everything about it, taking that bizarre state of what passes for civilization these days into account. Expect me to rant at length about this later.


Then, there’s the growing pile of short fiction that I’ve created over the last few years . . .



So far this century, most of my sales have been the result of editors coming to me, and I sell about the same amount as I did when I was beating myself up submitting everywhere and racking up rejections. These stories are not being read and that makes me feel bad, so I’m going back to the grind again. I’ll be surveying the market, and submitting regularly. I’ll report on what happens.


Also, l’m once again resolving to draw more. Gotta keep those chops. Who knows, I may need some illustrations, or graffiti, or something. And like I’ve said before it does good things to my brain.



I’m going to need my brain in top condition. There’s going to be some ugly shit happening in the next four years. 


Strange things are growing in my gray matter already. Monsters are bubbling up out of my id. I’ve got to let them out or my head will explode.


I hope to transform it all into art and literature.


I’m working on a new story—I should confess that I haven’t written any fiction since finishing my novel last year—and it’s called “Once Upon a Time in a Mass Deportation.” It’s got this smartass Chicano being interrogated by the National Guard, and things get . . . maybe a little more gonzo than magic realist. I’m using it for an example of how I do the voodoo that I do so well as part of an online writing workshop that’s part of a Latin@ Futurity class being taught at the University of Illinois Chicago.



These days, the Global Barrio extends to Chicago, and beyond. Sounds like sci-fi to some, but it’s my reality.


With a bit of luck, the students will be infected. Weird shit will start growing in their brains, and they will start committing acts of speculative fiction. And all this cultural mutation will be turned loose on the Trumptopia 2.0 . . .


“MOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAHA!”


I wanted to be a mad scientist when I was kid. It may happen yet.


Now, if only I had time to create a sarcastic filk song about it to the tune of In the Year 2525 . . .

 

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