Proofreading, writing, and reading

For much of January I was working on two volunteer proofreading projects. One was the fifth issue of Cirsova magazine, and the other was on portions of the upcoming young-adult Arthurian anthology, TALES OF THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING (edited by Anthony Marchetta: the original description is here), which will include a story of mine: my very first story, in fact. It's called "The Kings of the Corona". I recommend both Cirsova and TOTOAFK.

I may start proofreading as a sideline one of these days. I'm also working on an outline for a second story, not yet titled. More on that later.

I also have lots of ideas for other stories in my notes. One thing that has given me half a dozen new ideas already is the new-last-month anthology FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS from Superversive Press, which I'm enjoying. There are 20 stories (and an introduction by Milo Yiannopoulis), of which I've read eleven. I've already had more than enough fun to feel the $4.99 Kindle edition was a great buy, so I recommend this one too.

All the stories in the anthology have in common the theme of presenting ideas that would be offensive to the kinds of troglodytes who rioted to prevent Milo from speaking at Berkeley last night. I love this concept, which is of course rich with potential, and I want to work in that field. I can think of lots of ways to include what are today avant-garde ideas (you know, like truth and beauty and justice--not the "social" kind of justice, but actual justice). But the trick will be to write stories that work very well as stories--entertaining, properly paced, developed characters that the reader can care about, and so on. There will be a temptation to luxuriate in the "forbidden" themes themselves, since even writing or reading the things the SJW establishment has declared out-of-bounds is a relief and pleasure in itself, but that's only half the job. We'll need really good stories if we're to attract readers who aren't already feeling stultified by the SJW nonsense, and that's the only way the culture will change.