Thursday, December 31, 2009

Of T-shirts and New Years and Stitches and Whatnot

I've moved recently (more on that later, I suppose.) Before moving, not knowing my ultimate destination, I set up a P.O. Box to have my mail forwarded, and enlisted my loving sister to check the box every few weeks, asking her to forward on to me (once I got situated) whatever the contents might be.

Not that I was expecting anything too important. But that Irish anthology from Blue Mountain I got a story in is supposed to be sending a couple of free copies. The final bills for electric and gas and whatnot needed a place to go.

Most importantly, with my pending appearance in the January, 2010 issue of Necrotic Tissue, I was eagerly anticipating receipt of a new piece of clothing, the famed Necrotic Tissue T-shirt. I'm happy to report the T-shirt arrived just a few days ago, and I'm also proud to say this is my second. I received the first for my appearance in the Malpractice anthology.

My 100-word story (or "byte," in the Necrotic lexicon) is titled "Adagio," and the idea for the story literally came to me one night just before falling asleep. I remember thinking "that's a pretty good idea. You've got to remember that . . ." moments before falling into the arms of Morpheus.

So of course, the next afternoon, after staring at a blank page all day, I recalled having a pretty good idea the night before. Did I remember what it was? Of course not. As these things usually happen, it was a few days later when I was thinking of nothing in particular that it came back to me unbidden.

Anyway, just for fun, this past week I checked the Necrotic site to see if the cover for the new issue had been posted. It hadn't, so I thought I'd Google "Necrotic Tissue" to see if it had leaked out anywhere.

PRO-TIP: Do NOT Google "Necrotic Tissue" with images on.

I also went back and read the story again for the first time in months and thought it sucked. Then, I read it a second time (which discriminating readers will hopefully do after reading the last line, if I've done it right) and liked it better. After reading it a third and fourth time, I once again thought it was pretty good.

But only time (and the gracious reader) will tell.

In other news, thanks go out to my friend Aaron Polson, who has taken pity on me and accepted my story "The Milk of the Goddess" for inclusion in this year's 52 Stitches compendium of the sinister and the bizarre. It's an honor to be included among so many writers (and sometime commenters on this blog) whose work I have enjoyed – and envied – as the years have gone on.

At any rate, I'm not a resolution guy, but I am committed to making this my most productive writing year ever. Here's wishing the same to all of you good folk and fellow writers who check out my ramblings every now and again. I truly appreciate it.

And a Happy New Year to you all.

6 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Okay...I just searched "Necrotic Tissue" with images on...ouch, my eyeballs. I'm such a slow learner.

Happy New Year!

Brendan P. Myers said...

Heh. Hey, don't say I didn't warn you! Happy New Year to you as well.

And most sincere thanks again.

Fox Lee said...

Necrotic shirts rock : ) But yes - best to be careful with the google.

Brendan P. Myers said...

Thanks, Natalie. Tell me now!

Cate Gardner said...

I've made the google image search mistake more than once - bad me. :(

Brendan P. Myers said...

That you've seen such images does not bode well for your characters, Cate!