It's Curious...

...that you can spend a good chunk of your life trying to write the novel, or the movie script, and get absolutely nothing out of it, but you can write one six-word sentence (or paragraph, whatever) and get into print.

And what's even more maddening, perhaps it can even be ordained as the most frustrating thing in the world, is when you don't even remember what the hell you actually wrote.

I should explain further, dear readers: SMITH magazine has a new book out in February called Not Quite What I Was Planning. It's a collection of six-word "memoirs" that they've collected from the famous, the infamous, and the obscure alike, along the lines of Ernest Hemingway's famous "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

And, apparently, I'm in it. (I must be under the "obscure" heading.)

Maddening, like I said - unless they're lying to me, but I don't see how it could be to their advantage, as they are now obligated to send me a contributor's copy. It's true; they sent me an email and everything. My six lonely words are good enough to be published, and I'm in the horrible position of not being able to remember what I had written. Crap.

To be honest, the email almost went into my junk folder when I saw it - after all, I don't know any Rachels, and I've been dealing with so many Nigerian millionaires for so long that good news of any kind is immediately considered trash to me. It's a good thing, I guess, that I tend to read the subject lines of my mail, even if it's only for a good laugh.

Here are a few links to information about the project and the forthcoming book - I don't like to toot my own horn, but you should probably be buying that one.

Buy it at Amazon: Not Quite What I Was Planning

Article from the National Post: http://nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=166108

Blog entry from SMITH: http://smithmag.net/2007/12/17/countdown-1-2-3-4-5-six/

And six more words from me: The cake is still a lie.