One day after my first story was published, my second story was published, generating a pattern of one of my stories being published every day, which was more stories than I had to publish. I wondered what the magazines would do on the days I had no stories for them to publish. I found out the next day.
The story is titled “The Exhibits” and it was published by Fiction 365 and I am happier with this story than I am with my first one. I like the style more and it feels more real to me. The main character is somebody I can relate to, and I believe it is important for a writer to relate to his or her characters.
Having said that, the main character is not somebody you may want to relate to. He is a drunk guest at an exhibition party and he is trying to pick up a drunk girl and his actions do not do him credit. Of the two stories I have so far published, this is the first to talk about sex and body parts and body functions. And the moment it was published I felt two very different emotions: I felt excitement that I had another story published and that I was moving further down the road as a writer; and at the same time I felt a tightening in my stomach that signalled my fear and realisation that my mother was going to read my story about sex and body parts and body functions.
Well, my mother read it and then she did not mention it, and I assume from that response that she decided to quietly let me get on with my writing and hope that later I will write nicer stories. Not all my stories are about sex and body parts and body functions, although in an alarming number of them people die and many of those dead are murdered by other characters.
Some of my stories are about love and some of them are about animals and most of them do not end well. I do not intend to write such stories, but that is how they end up, and I suppose that is how we all end up – dead in the ground or burned to ashes.
When writing about my writing, I find it difficult to be funny, so here is a funny joke:
Paddy Irishman is driving around the centre of town, desperately looking for a parking space. He is about to have the biggest meeting of his life and he cannot be late. Finally he stops the car in the road and looks up to heaven and speaks:
“Dear Lord, if you can give me a parking space right now, I swear I will be a good Christian. I will go to church every Sunday, I will help the needy, I will quit drinking. Just please, please give me a parking space right now.”
As he finishes his prayer, the car parked beside his pulls out of the parking space. Paddy Irishman looks at the empty space, then he looks back up to heaven and speaks:
“Never mind, I found one.”
Congratulations! Loved the story, and Fiction 365 is a nice mag too…
Thanks Madhvi