By now there is a chance that some people have picked up my littered creative-works and moseyed their way online to this here blog.
To you I say congratulations and thank you.
To you I would also like to lay out, more concretely, some specifics about what I am trying to do and how I am trying to do it.
In each packet there is a letter, from me to you (my future reader), which should look like
this. However, that letter does not even begin to tell the story of how
this happened or what Littering really is; instead, the letter is an awkward introduction from myself to you. Of course it is awkward because I am awkward. It probably doesn't help that I am especially awkward when trying to market myself and my work. Hopefully, I can take this opportunity to be a little less awkward but more clear and detailed.
In essence, Littering is a way for me to publish my work and share it with a broad and diverse audience.
The idea for Littering came from a good friend's music project. My friend, Fritz Pape, is an experimental musician who has recently been building his music audience. Fritz burns demos on CDs and leaves them around his campus for people to find. People pick up the music and give Fritz great feedback. And Fritz keeps growing and doing really great things with his art. Seriously, check him out on
Facebook,
SoundCloud, or
Bandcamp; especially if you like modern ambient drone-type noise.
I adapted his idea to my writing after feeling like I had reached a dead-end. I am a really
serious writer, but it is hard not having an audience. For awhile I was submitting to literary magazines, but this very quickly became cost prohibitive (considering most magazines charge about $20 per submission and I am a "broke-college-student"). Then I considered posting on
FictionPress; however, that with that kind of online publishing I felt I was putting my work into a sea of work (of varying quality) only to be seen by a select set of people. So with a little nudging from Fritz and other friends Littering came into being.
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A litter of five white-huskies on green grass and against a
fresh hay-bail background. (Adorable). |
Christening the project was a none-problem, Littering came naturally. When I was discussing the logistics of this
thing I called it
littering. Fritz and friends would encourage me to go
litter. During my internal debates about whether to do it or not I thought of
it as
littering. So when it came time to coin a blog and create a new e-mail the appropriate title was right in front of me: Littering. Simple, elegant, but also a little paradoxical* and mysterious.
Next I had to choose what to share. Currently I have a short story, "Backup" and a poem, "Good Morning Glory" printed and out on the streets.
"Backup" is a short story I wrote last winter that has gone through many drafts, still has room to grow, and is one of my (current) favorite pieces. If you wander upon the short story packet currently out in circulation "Backup" will be the story you get to read; I would say more but I don't want to spoil it.
"Good Morning Glory" is, I think, the best of all my poems; I think it has a standing chance in the realm of poetry and I am really happy to share it with people. I am sharing poetry through this project, because even though I don't generally consider myself a poet I do dapple and have hand-fulls of adolescent poetry laying around--some (select few) of them deserve to be shared and given the chance to stand on their own two feet.
Soon, when I meet a privately set quota of response feedback, I will be publishing/posting both pieces online to be seen by the general public. I am also working on getting another short story ready for press, as well as considering releasing a few more poems into the public realm. I will keep you posted on that progress. Also, coming soon, I will deconstruct a packet for everyone on the blogosphere and (of course) litter some more.
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A good laugh from Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin is playing in a sandbox. Hobbes walks up, Hobbes: "Do you have an idea for your story yet?" Calvin: "No, I'm waiting for inspiration." Next frame, Calvin: "You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood." |
*As in, I promise I am not leaving trash around beautiful college campuses. Or maybe I am? That my dear readers is your call.
