It goes without saying that we here at JDP are all about supporting indie writers since, well, we are some and we publish lots of others. So I’d like to take a moment to highlight two favorites, each of whom produced their own noteworthy take on the JFK assassination last year.
First up is a guy from Maine named Stephen King. Admittedly, King comes with some baggage: first, he does owe every member of the English-speaking world a personal apology for Rose Red
and, yes, he’s probably made more money in his career than any modern writer not named Rowling. But at the end of the day, Uncle Stevie is the ultimate indie writer in the same way that Stephen Spielberg is the ultimate indie film maker: they’ve both reached the point where they can work on whatever project they feel creatively drawn to and get paid gobs in the process. And isn’t that every creative person’s dream?
Personally, I’ve always admired King a) because he still writes short stories at a point in his career when he really doesn’t need to and b) because he writes them so damn well. In fact, I’d argue he’s a far better story writer than he is a novelist. I’d happily take a collection like Night Shift or Everything’s Eventual over almost any of his novels, especially, to be blunt, his output over the past couple of decades.
A surprise exception, though, is his most recent effort, 11-22-63, a time-travelling epic that is as much about life in the Fifties and early Sixties as it is about the seminal event that ended what some still look fondly upon as America’s Golden Age. The difference between the reality of the past and our perception of it is at the heart of the book, but what makes it so special is that it reads like one of King’s best short stories. Sure, it’s 800 pages plus, but it doesn’t feel that long.
Of course, if you’re still daunted by that page count and want another take on what really happened in Dallas, head on over to Ryan Werner’s Our Band Could Be Your Lit (OBCBYL). His story “Back and to the Left” is as crisp and inspired as King’s novel but a hell of a lot shorter. (Think 800 words, instead of pages.)
JDP gave OBCBYL an initial shout out back when the project started in 2010 and it’s high time to revisit what Ryan’s been up to. The essence of the project is this: you send Ryan a song title and he takes the lyrics and turns it into an amazing and textured piece of flash fiction. He’s published 33 original stories and also let some shady cats like Eirik Gumeny and Sam Snoek-Brown sit in for a few stories along the way.
I assembled my own “Best Of” mix-tape for OBCBYL a while back and a few of my personal favorites, in addition to the JFK piece, are:
“Flood” based on “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” by Bob Dylan
“Sergei Avdeyev” based on “Traveller in Time” by Uriah Heep
“Where Is Your H?” based on “Smile and Wave” by Headstones
“Look at How Fast I Can Go Nowhere” based on “Life Passed Me By” by Super Stereo
“Refund” based on “On to You” by the Constantines
The thing that impresses you about each one of these stories is the depth and detail Ryan manages to achieve in such a short span. It’s like the literary equivalent of Elvish lembas bread — a little bit makes you feel full. (And, yes, that may be the geekiest piece of literary criticism you’ll read this year.) Put another way, if King’s best novels feel like short stories, Ryan’s best flash fiction feel like full-length books.
I’ll wrap this up by pointing out two more excellent stories by Ryan, published by, well, us. First is “Carbon,” his contribution to our Brilliant Disguise writing exercise. Then check out “English Degree” from way back in Issue Two.
So, far, Mr. King hasn’t sent us anything, but the door is always open. We’ll even waive the word limit for him. (And we do have a novella contest coming up…)