Looking back and looking ahead

I’ve decided to post a short story on my long-neglected blog every month, as close to the 1st as possible, and to post a First Sentence every day. First Sentences being imagined first lines to stories that may or may not turn into more. The decision to return to this blog is partially because of my friend Emilee’s new blog, the Piano Has Been Drinking (which you should definitely check out, and not just because it has a way cooler name than mine), and partially because I’m reading (okay, fine, listening to) Amanda Palmer’s memoir the Art of Asking, which encourages artists to go for it (and, of course, to ask for help when they need it). I’d never heard of Amanda Palmer before purchasing this audiobook, and apparently she’s controversial among a lot of people. I’m not going to get into any of that, because I only know what she’s shared in her book so far and what a couple quick Google searches have revealed. Instead, I’m going to leave it at her inspiring me to try and really do something with my writing, and to stick with it this time. Incidentally, she’s married to Neil Gaiman, a fact I didn’t learn until she said it in her book, and one I can’t pretend didn’t intrigue me. Neil Gaiman! Neil. Gaiman.

Anyway. Moving on.

Blogging isn’t really my thing so far, which will surprise no one who looks back to see how long ago I last posted. I’m not planning to relentlessly reread what I post here before I post it – I want this to be a work in progress. At least, I’m not planning to relentless reread my non-story content. My perfectionist streak probably means I’ll do just that with my fiction. Please excuse typos, wonky sentences, and excessive use of words I (mostly) trim from my stories, like like, actually, really, apparently, just, and so many others. I don’t have this many parentheticals in my stories either (really, I don’t!).

It seems appropriate that my First Sentence for today be one from a short story I will post in the coming months – though I can’t promise it’s exactly the first sentence used in the story as it exists today. This First Sentence is originally from 02/02/2013:

It was the homeless people. The beggars, the forlorn, the high, and the ones who’d made a bad run of choices. The ones on street corners and in parking lots, the ones people try not to notice. But I always noticed them, and so I noticed them enough to know something was different. Not just different, wrong.