I’m Reading Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump

This week, I used an Audible credit and got the audiobook of Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump. So, once again, I’m being read to this week as I go throughout my day. I’m almost half finished with it. This might be one that I also buy the print copy of, because there are some sections that I’d like to hone in on the language of. There is some repetition going on, and I’d also like to check out the dialogue a little more closely. I like it so far. As you know, I don’t really do book reviews, because that’s pretty much what they would honestly say. “I like it so far.” I might need to look into getting better at book reviews some day. I’ll have plenty of chances here soon, I suppose.

After getting accepted into the MFA program, I got myself set up and registered for my summer classes. While I’m super excited to start the MFA in the summer, I’m also super excited to have a reason to go back to Richmond, Kentucky and have Apollo’s Pizza here soon. I haven’t had it in probably seven or eight years. I’ve also been looking into transportation options, Greyhound bus tickets, the average costs of Uber near campus, and things like that. I think it’s going to be alright. It’s not too expensive. It is a little annoying that there’s not some sort of bus that travels from Lexington, Kentucky to Richmond, Kentucky. I think there’s a night of the residency where I’ll have to either ask a classmate for a ride up to a literary reading Lexington, or pay $50-$80 bucks to get up there in an Uber from Richmond and back. I did so much thinking and planning about this over the last few days that I didn’t even write any short fiction for the blog this week.

My Weekly Short Fiction Experiment On My Blog

I have been posting short stories on Fridays on my blog for the a month and a half or so. This week, in addition to planning for my summer, I also wrote some on a project that I started recently – the project I started in my little red Leuchtturm 1917 notebook. I like where it’s going so far, but we’ll see if I can keep up momentum. But, that means I didn’t get to working on any short stories for the blog.

I think that the main reason I wanted to post short stories on Fridays was to give myself practice with letting things go a little bit. I tend to over-edit my short stories. I’ll rewrite things 10 or more times sometimes. I don’t know for sure, but I think that’s more than most other writers I know. It’s partly because I like the process, which is a good reason. It’s also partly because of imposter syndrome or something like that, probably. So, I had to figure out a way to not get too stuck on the same stories for half a decade, especially when it keeps me from working on new things.

I think I accomplished my goal. I like some of the stories I posted, quite a lot, actually. And, some of them are just okay, and that’s okay. I’ve proved to myself that I can let the draft be. I probably won’t post short stories every Friday now. I’m sure I’ll have stuff every now and then, though.

Anyway, I’ll need some more stuff to read after this audiobook is finished, so let me know what you’re reading.