The Site: The reason for the site is pretty straightforward; I want to keep writing new stories. That said, most of what I have written has not been published. I doubt that’s a unique situation, but the fact remains. After having lost six months last year to a serious physical injury I have taken a step back and reassessed the goals of this project moving forward. Quite frankly, I can’t keep throwing the same ten stories at the brick wall of lit mags hoping to get one through the submission window and land on their site. My successes are well enjoyed and appreciated, but the numerous more eggs splattered against the brick are, admittedly, frustrating. Scorched earth, then.

Publish everything myself in some form. To find an agent or company to publish and market an anthology would require financing or social networking and then subsequent editing. Perhaps only one of the three, or two or all of those three things. None of them I am able to accommodate. I have very little experience in web design, but the general tools are easy to use and thus get the same project done as well as my pursuit of print would but with much less capital investment. Ignorance of systems, lack of research. Still, it’s the method I chose.

Me: I’m not a very serious person…until I start ranting about writing. I don’t think with a pen in hand, and I don’t format creatively. It is a compulsion, and an expulsion, which produces what I create. Usually at great distance from each other. It was really only that trilogy of stories in Trunk Space (Lathyrus, Dianthus, Jessamine) which came at once. The rest are much more separate. It’s kind of like puking, or like drinking heavily at the occasional party and throwing up in the bathroom. If there was one, that would be my creative process.

Ideation: I do not want to commit suicide nor do I believe suicide is a justified method of dealing with one’s emotions.

Professionalism: I lack it greatly. I am of the mindset, these days, that professionalism is something which has been highly exaggerated in its importance. Generally, nothing’s that serious. If you’re in court, sure, but me sending Dr. Jane Doe from Blah Blah University a two thousand word story about a college girl falling in love doesn’t need to be treated with the same gravity as the law.

Tone: If I’m not professional, and think that a story about a college girl falling in love isn’t that serious, then why should you take me seriously? My point there was strictly in regard to the affectation of the literary establishment—one I share. You shouldn’t take me seriously. You shouldn’t take anything seriously. You can listen to a well-read or well-delivered philosophical point and then chuckle with the person who said it to you by mentioning expired pickles or something. After all, “a relaxed house is the most peaceful,” as the good Ryuuta said.

Subject: I don’t like writing stories in America. My mentors lived in Japan, in Tokyo and the countryside, so I’ve done a fair amount of research into those locales and find them quite enjoyable. That’s called preference. It’s not a unique preference, I’ll admit, but it’s at least honest.

Right: I have none. I do it because I want to. If you want to read stories like mine but of a higher caliber, You should read Japanese Literature.

Recommendation: Dazai, simple enough. Schoolgirl, One Hundred Views of Mt Fuji, there’s a short story collection called Blue Bamboo which has some of his best shorts, including Romanesque, which he was popular for at the time. Akutagawa, especially the later years. Soseki, duh. Later on Kawabata Yasunari, Tanizaki Junichiro, Yukio Mishima (Despite his unfortunate end, Spring Snow is too good). Ango, Motojiro (Lemon). Dazai’s daughter Yuko Tsushima (Territory of Light, Nature Boy). Murakami, but I’ve only read Kafka on the Shore.

Non-Japanese: The Strugatskys, Glukhovsky, and especially Victor Pelevin. Sacred Book of the Werewolf and Homo Zapiens are amazing novels. Omon Ra is also very good. Otherwise Heinlein, but I’m not into his sexual obsession, but hippies will be hippies.

Music: Most of the stuff on here is probably lacking in some clarity. Plenty of them are reactionary stories. Getting emotional, because I’m an emotional person, and tapping away until the thing is done. Putting a track on repeat to keep the feeling fresh, that kind of thing. Musical references in a lot of places. The Author Notes within usually mention them.

Editing: Some of the editing is probably messed up. I write with Google Docs and I didn’t go to college. Grammarly is a bit expensive. Then there’s just forgetting to space after a period. Little things like that. The stories on here are active, if I see something I’ll go in and fix it, but I’m working on other projects fairly regularly so they might not happen quickly.

Defensive: Yep, to a fault.

Women: Genuinely I am laughing that I ended up choosing that for the section header. Simply there is a fact that I write a lot of female perspectives. So, to the question of why and the suppositions: I don’t know. I’ve retroactively attributed some of it to an internal inability to write a male character with the emotional vulnerability to internalize like many of my characters do because of un-progressive subconscious feelings about what a man should be like. But that’s probably bullshit, and I’ve written enough about Bullshit. The first novel I read which inspired me to the pen was The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, which, despite being written by a man, was in a female voice. Same with Schoolgirl, Dazai was a man. “Imitation is the greatest form of flattery”, after all.

Conclusion: Did you gain anything from reading this letter? If so, good. If not, fine. It’s not important in relation to the stories on the site.

Have fun reading these stories, I hope you like them.

TJ Daly