I admitted before to my near-obsession with short stories. Now I just randomly happened upon this thread about stories that “blew you away” on the Poets & Writers Speakeasy (I think you have to sign in to read it). There are so many stories mentioned that I haven’t even read!

But this comment about children’s books made me sort of want to cry:

also- “The Falls” – – by george saunders – to me this story is absolutely brilliant – – my favorite story of all time – what happened to saunders ?? childrens books ? jeez

It’s not George Saunders; I love his stories. It’s me. I’m still trying to reconcile this, I guess.

I want to write for young adults and also continue to write what I usually write, literary fiction. Who says I can’t do both? Anyone, anyone? Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala I’m not listening.

(Real mature.)

But hey! I’m still revising that short story for the summer workshop… getting close…

Do you know that one short story (litfic) can take me longer to write—if you factor in all the months for each of the drafts over the years—than an entire young adult novel? That may have been a very unhealthy thing to confess. I was trying to explain it to e yesterday… It’s because every. single. word. matters*. Still, I have to finish revising this story today.

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* Which just so happens to be how I’m treating D: the novel I’m writing now. I hope that making every. single. word. matter doesn’t slow me down too much. I actually have a deadline for this one.