I officially finished the first draft of a short story last night.

It started as a flash fiction, but I was having trouble setting it aside. Then, I realized it was the final section of something much longer. That was a couple of months and eleven sections ago.

The story is set in 1978. I've never written anything that could be considered historical fiction before. The closest I've gotten is writing about socialist, revolutionary and insurance salesman James Connolly…and that was set in 2005. (Yeah, he was a clone.)

The crazy that was the 70s was starting to wind down in 1978. But there was still plenty left to go around. Especially if you grew up in the middle of nowhere, and didn't know any better.

(original video here, because it is badass but cannot be embedded)

It was a fun story to write, but I'm really glad the first draft is done. Today is a play day, then it's back to work tomorrow.

Fun 1978 music trivia fact: The guy who did this song…

…went on to write this song:

I start a quest by clicking accept. I complete the steps of the quest. I get the reward I was told I'd get at the start of the quest by clicking accept at the end of the quest.

Players start the game with the same set of choices. They own the same user manuals. Their quests don't start without their knowledge. There's no such thing as a wrong quest. Even quests that some consider a waste of time have rewards. It's up to a player to decide whether the guaranteed reward is worth the effort that he or she will make. Quest givers don't care who a player is, who anyone else is, who s/he is, or about the state of gaming. There's no one with the reward who didn't do the quest. 

There's a flip side, of course. The quest giver also doesn't usually care about the level of quality players  achieve in completing the quest steps. It doesn't care if players get outside help.

Sometimes, quests are bugged. But players can file a support ticket when that happens, and eventually things are resolved. By things, I mostly mean rewards.

When I see a player with a shiny dagger, my first thought is Stabzor over there probably made a ridiculous amount of effort to get that Shiny Dagger of Stabbing…effort that I'm not especially willing to make. We choose to do different things with the time that we have. That's cool.

But, still. If I am willing to put in the work, I will get the reward. Most of the time, it's that simple.

The new issue of The Northville Review is up. I don't think I am feeding a massive nonanonymous editorial ego when I say that I think it's pretty good. There's still time to sneak an inside joke in there, if you happen to have one.

After I die, I want to be pencils.

The United States of McDonalds.

This is not the same as the "TriQuarterly is going online!" I've been reading everywhere else. While the changing of the guard is unfortunate and sounds like it was very badly handled, I'm curious as to the reasons why going to an online format under the current watch wasn't considered feasible. If "compromise of quality" wasn't one of the reasons, it would be best for that to come out now. Because otherwise, I'll assume it was…and then I'll shrug.

Someone needs to make a Choose Your Own Kazuo Ishiguro Novel.

The Genre-Fiction Generator 2000.

What should students demand from MFA programs?

Next stop: Shops and Clowns. The Ultimate Uncluttered Tube Map.

I have a story called "Fraud" at Necessary Fiction. It's about credit card theft. I used to work for an online retailer — I handled various credit card issues. Some of the fun facts for this story are also public service announcements.

– The Federal Trade Commission has an excellent webpage: Avoiding Credit and Charge Card Fraud. This page also tells you what to do when you realize your card has been stolen. Bookmark it for when this happens to you. If it hasn't already, it will.

– Don't use your debit card to make large impulsive purchases. Any one of several ordinary things happening can mean that for a brief period of time, there's less money in your account than there should be. Trust me, that's when your rent check is going to hit.

– The first Highlander movie is one of my guiltiest pleasures. The ultra 80s Queen soundtrack…Sean Connery and Clancy Brown…an immortal Scotsman who speaks with a French accent…it really doesn't get much better than any of that.

– This story was a long time in the mental making, but it wouldn't have arrived in this form without the Flash Factory at Zoetrope's forums — and a great prompt there from Ethel Rohan. Thanks, FF and Ethel, I hope to be back there soon.

"Ode to the Double-Crossed Lackey in 'Thunderball" — Tara Laskowski

This is getting some attention: Why NewPages won't review anonymous publications.

I've probably linked it before, but I'm linking it again: Significant Objects.

The value of the Bechdel test.

I have to agree…Street Fighter is not even close.

A mass market blog/book deal that I think is kinda cool.

The Millions: The Best Fiction of the Millenium (So Far).

Dani Shapiro on being a good reader. Also, on writer's block.

A bunch of interesting links at LitKicks, including Jim Carroll's funeral card, which I think most Catholics would refer to as a mass card (and yes, there was a mass). Thanks to the illustration on the card, I fell down a Google rabbit hole and learned/was reminded that St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata.

A sentence that isn't quite right, but I'm keeping it anyway (and I liked the book too): Laura Ellen Scott on A Jello Horse.

"A House" — Bradley Sands

It was ten years afterward, for me. These days, I don't think the process ever ends…unless you elect to stop it.

Rough draft of first 60 pages of new Stephen King, dusted off twice in the last 30+ years. (via)

"Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs" — Leonard Richardson

Lily Hoang on pretense.

My favorite: Donnie Darko.

"God is popular" — Rachel B. Glaser

Next Northville Review: September 24. Feel free to go look at the new color scheme now, though.

I did not see the new Behind the Music: Lil'Wayne this week. I'm deeply concerned because, as we all know, VH-1 only shows things once and then they're gone forever.

Scribblenauts comes out for the DS on Tuesday. You write words to complete levels! If a level is a cat is in a tree, you can write "chainsaw" and you get a chainsaw to chop down the tree. Or you could write "catnip" and lure the cat out of the tree. The game has a vocabulary of words that's in the tens of thousands. Watch God (on a skateboard) fight Cthulhu in Scribblenauts here.

A very in depth look at Google Street View.

I'm writing longer work lately. Like, 2.5 to 5k. Last week was all 70s, and I've never done historical fiction before. I cannot get the soundtrack out of my head.

Matt's right. Everyday Genius is having a great month…or five weeks..or six.

Justin and Laura make me wish I was 19 years old in 2009.

I'm out of Pepsi. This is bad.

As if I wasn't going to link this: Life size LEGO house. Also: LEGO Dune.

The bait and switch of contemporary Christianity.

Ravi needs to start this mag.

I am way, way too introverted.

Guy sneaks Xbox into NYPL, only busted after making a lot of noise while playing.

Confessions of a TA, Director's Cut.

I think I'm introverted because I'm afraid of boring the hell out of people.

I like this prompt very much.

I like this one, too.

I read Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply. Holy hell, what a good novel. My local independent bookstore had it. My local Borders did not. Seeing how much the selection has tanked at that Borders over the last year has been a sort of national barometer. Also: Borders is next door to a Circuit City grayfield. So there you go.

Finally, a review of Castle that references Lost.

Don't screw with Sean Lovelace and/or flash fiction: Part 1 and Part 2. (Bonus: Ed's dramatic rendition.) I want Sean's book but I already spent my meager allowance this week on Artifice.

Revisiting Star Wars, now that the series is complete.

I like reading about writer residencies because I don't get to do many. Sierra Nelson recaps Centrum.

A pen that is permanently damaged if you don't use it for 3 weeks.

Well-known writers who do not Twitter.

I'm sure you can do this with any band, but I'm glad someone did it to Nickelback.

I'm playing the open beta of Aion. I have a mage and a gladiator. I made the gladiator so that you really cannot tell if it's male or female — petite and makeupped, but a strong neck and totally boobless. I named it Ambiguous. When the game starts officially and I have to make permanent characters, I will probably make Ambiguous again, but I might make her/him a cleric instead.

I've never heard this attributed to Vonnegut before.

Two alternate endings for Twilight.

My fourth grade student came home from school today and they'd talked about 9/11. She wanted to see the news footage that we'd watched when she'd just turned 1, so we watched some of it. I had to explain a few things to her. I remember thinking in 2001 that eventually she and I would end up talking about it.

Critiques are valuable, and not the way you think they're valuable.

I need to find a job for many reasons (see above re: being unable to afford more than one item of literature at a time), but another one is so I can commute again and listen to podcasts. Like Mixtape, the forthcoming one from Barrelhouse.

New litmag issues from the last couple of weeks. I even alphabetized them for you!

CellStories

decomP

elimae

Emprise Review

Grey Sparrow Journal

Monkeybicycle

Storyglossia

Stymie Magazine

Wigleaf

Writers’ Bloc

Point out some others in the comments. Self pimpage encouraged.

I've been away from writer-socializing all summer, but summer's over now. The new groups feature on Fictionaut looks really cool. Sometime later today I will take a deep breath, grip my lunch tray and return to that cafeteria.

I'm writing a short story. (As in, not flash fiction. GASP!) It is set in 1978. I learned this morning that one of my favorite celebrities was born in 1978.

The Northville Review is temporarily closed to poetry. That is just about the most uncool move that can be made on September 1, when most literary magazines are reopening to submissions. If we closed to everything, we'd be contrarian and edgy! But nope, just poetry. That makes us nerds, and not the good kind.

Downloading a video game. It is the correct time of year to do this. As Aion is a faction versus faction game, my character race will be Whatever Everyone Else I Know Decides They Want. My character class will be Whatever Is Completely Overpowered, Which Usually Means Something That Shoots Arrows. My character gender will probably be female, because male MMO avatars almost always look like Ken dolls. My first character name will be Roleplayingesque, but all subsequent characters I make will have Carefully Pondered Smartass Names.

Enjoying the hell out of this site. I used to commute from Medical Center to Tenleytown (and I lived in Oakton, go figure). Even though it was a short Metro ride, I got to see interesting things sometimes. One time a guy jumped on the train at the last minute and he made it in, but his plastic grocery bag with his lunch did not — it got trapped outside the doors, and whipped around the outside of the car on its way to Bethesda. I also once saw EMTs working on a guy who had fallen down the Tenleytown escalator. Never run on the escalator.

Listening to the Little River Band. I just heard a bent note in "Cool Change" that I've never heard before. Not the one you're thinking of, before the chorus. I love a good bent note, but that wasn't a particularly good bend. Also, the singer says "Woo!" at the very end of the song. Sometimes high quality audio is not an improvement.

(If you think this post sucks, I recommend you check out the PANKblog's entry today. As with every day, doing so will dramatically improve your Internet reading experience.)