ben white

I have a new story up at Everyday Genius, called “Milestones.” Thanks go to March editor Laura Ellen Scott, now slated to be the fiction editor for Prick of the Spindle, which should be good things for LES and good things for POTS, so cheers all around. I like acronyms.

This story is actually based on a news bit from last December about a Taiwanese man who “beat” World of Warcraft by essentially doing every in-game task. Of course, my understanding is that the new patch added new achievements (makes the game unbeatable doesn’t it?). There’s also a good chance that the “man” was actually more than one player sharing an account, but hey, this is fiction, right? Let the record also state that I used to exclusively wear cargo pants and cargo shorts in my youth.

While you’re there, read “13 Ways of Looking at a Roadtrip” by Barry Graham, which went up in EG last week. Now that is an ending.

David Backer of FictionDaily has a guest post over at The Millions, Long Live Fiction: A Guide to Fiction Online. It’s a great, positive look of a newcomer to the world of fiction publishing online. A year ago I also literally had no idea these sites or the writers that populate them even existed. When you discover online fiction, the words seem never-ending:

What’s changing is access. I might read a short story in a magazine in Australia. Then I’ll follow a link to a new journal that’s just popped up in York, England. Then I’ll read an author bio and find the author’s blog, which has more of her writing and links to other magazines and the magazines and blogs of her friends in Nashville, New York, Portland, Austin, etc. The et cetera continues indefinitely. I find new places everyday. More and more and more writing.

Backer went searching for new fiction. He found “gobs and gobs of it,” and is happy to share the results. Part of his rundown is a very charitable view of twitter-fiction, particularly of my taste for Nanoism:

The difference with White’s stuff, both his own writing and the writing he publishes, is that in it you can see the litwit taking shape as a valid form, shaped by our technology, for getting at the truth.

Overall, an excellent introduction to why “Fiction is dead, long live Fiction,” and a great illustration for why sites like FictionDaily will help us navigate the endless story-seas for more manageable journeys.

And speaking of truth, here are two more Thaumatrope stories. The first, in particular, we must be wary of as we step into the future.

I have a very short piece with a critical thought up on the front-page of Matchbook for the next two weeks. It’s the last piece I have out for a while, but I’ve been looking forward to it since October. It’s more Craigslist fiction; read it here.

Matchbook is unique in two great ways.

1. They have a rolling, one-story-at-a-time publication schedule. Currently, the run for each story on the main page is two full weeks, which is incredibly generous to the writing they select. Things stay fresh but they don’t get lost.
2. They include critical companion pieces, so fictional stories and nonfiction thoughts are presented side-by-side. Anyone who has ever enjoyed reading an author interview knows that sometimes the background can not only change how we interact with stories but also be as fascinating as the writing itself. And Matchbook puts these mini-essays right in the forefront.

The whole site is unique but fast and eminently readable.

In other news, the awesome Mel Bosworth reads my flash “When We Are Old” in Big Other Reading Series, #3. What a gracious and kind thing of him to do, not just for me, but for everyone he’s read on his YouTube channel: Mel Bosworth Reads Things. Check it out.

Lastly, another Thaumatrope.

Writer’s Bloc (Rutgers) is a rare site that has a new design–a good design–with every issue. I have piece in the new issue 7. Check out the splash page to see the issue’s underwater theme in action, as well as the writing of Jimmy Chen (owner of the best personal url meme of all time) and Laura Ellen Scott (curator of VIPs on vsf, a blogsource [is that a word? should be] on very short fiction).

It’s a fresh, exciting venue, and it’s always a pleasure to see what’s going to pop up the next month.

My wife and I just watched the first few episodes of Food Network’s Worst Cooks in America because we love food and we love TV and the Food Network is a dangerous timesink. They “found” the 24 “worst” cooks in America. Then they took the worst 12 and put them in a cooking competition with two good chefs as teachers, who proceed to give them shit when they–surprise, surprise–can’t cook. It’s sorta sad watching these guys flounder and not as entertaining as the classy folks on Jersey Shore, but it’s still an entertaining twist on the endless stream of competition shows (there’s actually a hairdressing one [ick]).

“I need a friend” is another piece of Craigslist Fiction, now up in issue 30 of Right Hand Pointing, alongside fine folks like Nanoism contributor, K.M.A. Sullivan. The series continues…on January 18th.

And how about that near comeback for the Longhorns during the BCS Championship?

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