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.old. .new. .guestbook. .notes. .email.
.profile. .diaryland. .song. .story. .things. .records. .rings. .site. words of finality on a few things 2004-08-08 3:36 pm I've often found that fiction's worth can be judged purely by the weight of the last line. It's universally effective, that last line. Much more so than the opening. When I write a short story, I always write the last line first. Always. Similarly, I always read the last sentence of a story or novel before starting it. If I'm not moved by the very last line, then by rule, the entire story will fall like a thud upon my brain. After all, lasting impressions and final words are much more important than first impressions or beginnings. Last week I was at my family's cabin in northern Michigan. I'm not a nature girl, but I managed to get some lovely reading done. The new Elfquest comic, Searcher and the Sword, was pretty good. Not an epic or anything, but still had some great moments, like when a human girl accuses Skywise of being 'unfaithful to the one he loves' by sleeping with everyone. Skywise says, 'There's no one I DON'T love, long-legs! How much more faithful can I be?' Ah, the mystery of monogamy, elf-style. There was an incredible novella in the new SciFi & Fantasy Magazine called 'The Tribes of Bela'. I always go into that stuff warily because it can be so cheesy, but this one was great - totally bloody and scary and depressing and bizarre. People died all the damn time for no reason, and the good guys lost. All the alien creatures were cool. I started reading the Best Short Stories of 2003 just KNOWING I'd be disappointed because 'literary' stories are usually such crap - wars and dead relatives and parent-child relationships. All the same. I read six stories with difficulty and was about to stop reading when I read one called 'Moriya' about a teenage boy's erotic encounters with a lifesized mechanical doll. It was really fucking weird, not to mention amazingly done. I may have to finish the collection now.
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