Hi!
Well, you know, this is the fifteenth. Which is falling on the sixth this month. Who’da thunk it? Truthfully, who’d have bothered to think it? Guess I’m just in a good mood, so I’m babbling. You’re welcome. {8′>
Still with me? Cool! For some reason I’ve been on a sort of “YA” kick lately. Maybe it’s because an ex-foster kid may be coming to live with us yet again (cough). Or maybe it’s because I’m fascinated by their deep and everlasting romances that can begin and end in a few hours, with heartfelt proclamations of love all over the place.
Don’t get me wrong: I think kids are cool. I’m just bemused, because it’s obvious they’re completely serious about this stuff. Picture this scene, for instance:
I’m giving a 14yo kid a ride home from school a couple of years ago, and he’s telling me his girlfriend dumped him that day.
“She thinks I’m cheating on her,” he explains.
Surprised, I mull that over. “You mean…she thinks you’re not holding hands in public with some other girl? How can she tell?”
“Shut up,” he responds with justifiable heat.
So there’s that. Meanwhile, on with the show. I hope you like this week’s story.
True Mesh
The automobile, I’m told, did a lot to revolutionize courtship behavior in those societies rich enough that they became widespread. I believe it. So has the ubiquitous smartphone of today. Thing is, the march of technology hasn’t stopped. What will kids of the future be dealing with? Beats me, of course, but here are a few notions I came up with…plus a bit of goofiness, just because.
[REDACTED 10/12/2015]
I’m making many of my stories Amazon-only for a while. Their “Kindle Unlimited” deal is very nice for short fiction. I hate to leave people out if they prefer buying stuff at non-Amazon sites, but…(1) nearly all sales and downloads, for me, have always come from Amazon, (2) while I’ve had issues with Amazon, they’ve been very responsive in dealing with them, (3) I can’t say that for any other online distributor (well, Smashwords is actually pretty nice), and (4) this may boost visibility at Amazon…kind of the core of my business. If you really really hate the idea, please let me know.
Something happened to your notifications? I’m not getting any email.
Thanks.
Heather
Possibly? I know the contact form was broken. I fixed that today, and it may have fixed a problem with other notifications at the same time. If it didn’t, please let me know and I’ll look into it further.
Thanks for letting me know!
I loved your story! I totally got lost in it. I stumbled on your site via twitter somehow, saw that you wrote YA on your blog and decided to check it out. I am so glad I did! I am interested in writing YA, but have mostly been writing poetry for now, and getting into some longer works. I will be back to read more of your stories! Check out my blog on Tmblr:
http://aeternalumen.tumblr.com Thanks for the great read!
Thanks! You may be the very last person to find me via Twitter, ’cause I’m going to close that down. Welcome to the site, though!
Also, I tried to say hi on your site but couldn’t figure out how to leave a comment. I really liked “Life Unlived” though. Gave me a couple of story ideas…
How do you do that? I’m not even close to techie savvy and I still got the gist of the story! You write YA well and you definitely understand them! You captured their fast changing emotions exactly how I remember them from raising my daughter.
Maybe ’cause I’m totally making up the tech to go with the story? I’m glad it works for you!
Also, I like writing this YA stuff–but that doesn’t mean typical YA readers will like what I come up with. I suspect they’re mostly kids themselves, and they’d want to see themselves a little differently from the way I portray them. If I knew any of ’em personally (I know kids, but they’re not readers damnit) I’d ask. But I don’t, so I can’t.