Re-Cap

Let’s recap: 1 new flash
fiction per day, 1 Texas-based blog post per day, 1 Houston-inspired photo per
day, conversations about art with the painter, our shared studio space (shown here), and lots of yoga/reading/writing in my little hotbox of a loft (at
right).

The New York Times title prompts are giving me a real knack for true
fiction freewrites and being forced to print them out in first draft form for
potential collaboration with Howard adds another layer. What can I say? I’m an
Oregonian and a nature-lover at heart. Cities are the last place I’d choose to
set a story, so now that I’m doing that every day I’m coming up with some
funky-fun stuff. The tightness of the title, the short form, and the urban
landscape (my own added thematic requirement) force me to get weird: editorial
interns playing pool in a pub are approached by a literary psychic, a pregnant
teen walks to an abortion clinic on the eve of her quinceñera, an OCD first
grader makes lemonade and finds patterns in the ice cubes, a woman hit by a car
prefers life with her head injury rather than without…the list goes on.

What challenges have you
embarked on as writers or artists? Daily prompts? Group critiques? Collaborations?
Morning pages? How did this work change your creative process?

11 of 25 ways of looking at Houston: It’s hot and
sweaty and muggy and yet…there’s great international food anytime you want it, the
best YMCA gym ever (5 stories tall), more gallery openings each weekend than
you can count on your fingers (and toes), a navigable and pedestrian-friendly
downtown grid, the ever-presence of Whole Foods, and so much public art you
could trip over it. Like this lovely poem-carving, one among many on Fannin
Street.

Today’s NY Times title prompt: “The Character Test.”