Event: Flash Fiction Forum

Been enjoying The Loyalty of Water? Local to the Bay Area? Not local, but planning on being here on March 12th? Come out and see some of us!

Lita Kurth, she of the yin-yang tattoo, is a cofounder of a vibrant local reading series in San Jose, the Flash Fiction Forum. This time around, you'll be able to meet her in person and listen to both me and Allison Landa read from our writing.

Here's the official information:

WHAT: Flash Fiction Forum! (a bimonthly curated reading series)

WHERE: The WORKS/SJ Gallery, 365 S. Market St. in downtown San Jose (in the same building as the Convention Center parking lot). Parking is about $3/hour.

WHEN: This time, March 12th. Generally, the second Wednesday of the month from 7 to about 8:30 PM. 

HOW MUCH: Although the event is free, beer and wine are available for sale to help WORKS with expenses and they also ask a donation of $2 for those who are able.

WHO: As of today, 3/4, it'll be these beautiful people:

1.     Jan Berkeley “Double Fantasy”

2.     Donelle McGee, “Homecoming”

3.     Jessica Barksdale Inclan, “He Grabbed Me” published in KneeJerk magazine, Oct., 2013

4.     Celia Stahr, “Detroit: Independence Day, 1932” is drawn from a larger work in progress, Frida Kahlo in America: A Mexican Artist’s Cross-Cultural Journey Into the Unknown

5.     Emily Breunig, “For the Children,” an excerpt from her novel, A Ghost at the Edge of the Sea

 6.     Victoria M. Johnson, “Thirteen Things to Do on Friday the 13^th” 

INTERMISSION

7.     Marilyn Fahey, “Last Letter”

8.     Allison Landa “Creation”

9.     Leslie  Hoffman, “Cecile Street”

10.  Renee Schell “Suburban Fantasy”

All are welcome! Hope to see you there.

The Loyalty of Water: A Yin-Yang Tattoo

Guest post by Lita A. Kurth

A Yin-Yang Tattoo

In Parkland, a subset of Tacoma near the Pacific Lutheran University campus, a placid blonde woman poked a tattoo onto my left hand, right where I can see it every day: the yin-yang symbol in red and black. A bunch of us got tattoos when we finished our MFAs, but up to the very hour that I had it done, I didn’t feel the time was right. I had thought I’d wait until I achieved integration or published my novel, but that afternoon, while a friend and I ordered matching felt jackets a few doors down, I experienced a sudden fierce urge to get a tattoo. Now I can look at it multiple times a day, a reminder of perfect balance.

The Divided Self

At a university where I once worked, professors laid their extra books on a hall table for anyone to take. I remember picking up a book with the title, The Divided Self, thinking, oh yes, this is about me. It was more about Victorian literature, so I set it down again, but I am a person often at war with myself. I am a person who says, “I’m going to lose a few pounds before AWP starting today” and then goes to Five Guys for a hamburger and fries. Then I’m surprised and angry. I declare to myself that, “I’m going to work on my novel today” and the day passes. I’m frustrated, disappointed, bewildered. It’s one thing to achieve balance between two conscious selves; it’s quite another to bring in the mysterious unconscious which seems to operate out of sight. I only see its footprint.

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