A categorical index of my writing on Medium
People will talk
When I’m dead, people will say, “I have to admit the guy was a mess.” I will hear this, smile, and think, I’m so glad my death made you happy.
When I’m dead, people will say, “I heard he was an addict. I feel bad for him, but I guess that doesn’t matter now.” I will hear this, smile, and think, Your addiction is just easier to hide.
When I’m dead, people will say, “Man, look at what that jerk just did to the people closest to him.” …
THE JOYS OF LACKADAISICALITY
I can offer far more
An email showed up in my inbox today from my kids’ driving school. The same driving school that taught my son how to round off the corner of our garage with his passenger door. It read:
Subject: Re: Please review us Jim - 25 seconds
Hi Jim,
It would mean the world to us if you could write a review on Google. It’s one of the best ways we have of getting new students.
It will only take 25 seconds.
It’s a fair ask. To their credit, they emailed the right person. Like driving, writing is something I practice on…
It only matters when it hurts
David flapped the newspaper and leaned forward in his chair. “Catherine, listen to this.”
The fire started in the early hours of Sunday morning. A little past ten A.M., callers to 911 reported hundreds of people, half dressed and stumbling about on the darkened roads.
“I don’t want to hear about it,” Catherine said, pushing a spatula across a runny egg in the skillet.
“The clouds were greener than the Devil’s belly,” one man described the scene. “The blue sky turned yellow, glistening like a sickened rainbow.”
The source was pinpointed to the basin behind Strawberry Mountain, just off Cascade…
Creativity flourishes within boundaries
Once upon a time, I produced videos for a living. I worked for a non-profit, had a crappy salary, and when I started, had zero tools to produce said videos. And you know what? I made some creative stuff. I found ways to pull off captivating pieces that I could have never afforded — asking seasoned videographers to help me frame shots, making a jib with a fishing pole and old weights, tweaking cheap microphones to capture the best sound possible in a makeshift studio in the corner of a leaky building lined with eggcrate mattress pads. And all the…
Zane and Mark have given good thoughts here. Just FYI, I meter almost all of my stories, even the prompts. The money I earn from that isn't significant enough to be worth the trouble. For me, it's more about keeping the prompts for an engaged audience who enjoys experimenting with literature. For the stories, people don't value what they don't pay for, so I find that paying for a Medium membership and putting my stories behind the paywall keep both of us engaged in reading, writing, and responding. You can always promote your stories and make them accessible to anyone by using the friend link, and all stories posted via Twitter bypass the paywall.
J.A. Taylor
Creator of SciFiShorts.pub & FantasyShorts.pub, and coiner of Centinas and Pentinas. Newsletter at jataylorwrites.com. Write with him at sfswriters.com.
