Tag: jason brick

Review: Itty Bitty Writing Space

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Itty Bitty cover image

Itty Bitty Writing Space

Edited by Jason Brick & Dani J. Caile

Cover by Arthur Wright

Full disclosure: I am one of 104 authors in this wide-ranging flash fiction collection. It’s good company to be in.

This collection is like an assortment of quality chocolates: everyone will have different favorites but no one who likes stories will go away disappointed. With minimal commitment, readers can sample outside their preferred genres and might even discover a new favorite author.  I at first thought the book would be handy to fill brief wait times; at no more than three pages each, each story can be read in a few minutes. But it’s hard to stop at just one!

I also love the cover, which manages to be completely adorable yet not at all childish: an itty bitty writer, hard at work on a tiny masterpiece.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-July 9, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Posting a day late because yesterday, we ran away to beautiful Whidbey Island to taste liqueurs and wines, and to attend an important family birthday party. And also to delay having to choose which of an overabundance of great band names to honor this week. I finally went with the shortest and the longest:

BUHU

Short one first. I chose it for the condensed spelling of a sob. Then I learned it is also the name of a yokai, a being I only recently learned about when I read the terrific new novel Wrestling Demons by Jason Brick. I love the serendipity!

Colt and the Peacemakers

I love the classic X and the Y structure, especially when the two parts together refer to something else, and the something else has its own inherent irony.

I Set My Friends on Fire

The literal is kind of horrifying this close to July 4th, so I’ll go with the metaphorical. The right kind of friend group can inspire creativity; even incandescence. (Inspired by that family birthday party for a young teen who has wonderful friends.)

The Lark and the Loon

This pairing of differently musical birds offers another angle on X and the Y structure, where the two are equals. The repeated L sound makes it sing off the tongue.

The Spirit of the Beehive

This summer seems to be developing a bee theme. Last week was The Hula Bees, now this. I like the idea that the humming hive is an entity with a life and spirit of its own.