in February, a dream story i wrote found a perfect home in Metazen: Rice.
usually, the publication is the ending "bowl" for a story. but Rice keeps moving on. start of this month, i came across a writing challenge for St. Patrick's day in Ireland. and in a surprise way, Rice fitted into the challenge guidelines. i added some small changes, and the new version is now up in the challenge page, here: Rice / The Paddy Whacker.
the story received some beautiful feedback notes. one picked up on the words directly: "very nice work, and the flow is great. The tiny words, the rice words, are perfect... like grains." - Meg Pokrass
i never thought of flash fiction like this, but yes: rice words. and the story: a bowl for the words.
and as these days everything is happening parallel, an interview with metazen editor Frank Hinton went live in the fictionaut blog. and it includes.. Rice. here:
Q: "Talk about three stories Metazen has published."
A: “Rice” is a piece by Dorothee Lang. It looks like a plain and sparse story when you first read it and then after you finish, it sits with you. It doesn’t digest. You go back and read it again and then where there was once a minimal feel, now new colors and ideas come to mind. You realize it’s a trick. The story is not a puddle but a lake. It’s clean and bright and steaming like a bowl of rice." (- interview link, the 2 other stories are: "Pretty" by Christopher Allen (based on a real life moment), and the incredible "The Serious Writer and His Penis" by Finnegan Flawnt.)
i just checked. the Rice story itself is really only 218 words long. not sure, but i guess it's the dream core that makes it reverberate. (note to subconscious: try to keep some more dream fragments when waking).
and .
