Publishing Short Stories

The two previous posts have been waiting to see the light of Internet for almost a month. I've been debating how to publish these stories. I thought about Scribd, I considered submitting it to a short story zine or two. I knew I wasn't publishing for money and I didn't want anyone else to control it. I also knew that I didn't want to create another account with another site and that's really what helped me decide to go with Google Docs.

I didn't read about publishing rights like I wanted to, so I'm not sure what they're covered under. If you're interested in republishing these or using them leave me a comment and we can work something out.

Ninja Edit:
I meant to end this post with a question. Have you ever published anything, in physical media or on Internet? What experience did you have, what avenues did you pursue?

Short Story 2: Surfing

Surfing is one of those mythical activities I'd never actually be able to do. Like owning a convertible or seeing Nine Inch Nails in Prague.

I'm about to make this happen! As I stare glassy eyed at several boogie boards hanging. Which do I need? What's the difference? The owner is quacking away on the phone without a care for me.

I choose one, immediately he gets up “you don't want that one, you want THIS one.” he snaps and then back to his phone. I grab some flippers and wax and I'm out.

Twice a week I ride to the beach to learn this sport and conquer this. 45 minute bike ride there, 2 hours of flopping around in the water, 45 minutes bike ride home. While discussing my trouble I hear that I may be too big to catch waves.

How can this be? Hawaiian men are bigger than me and I know they do it, they invented it! My motivation sapped, I give up for a few weeks. I ask around about surfing and how to get starting. No one wants to tell me about the boogie board, only about real surfing. Longboarding. It took them only a few tries to pick it up. Good for fucking them.

The motivation I lost turns to spite with this latest news. I'll show them by showing myself and learning this once and for all.

We drive to the beach in the rental, I launch out, pass the snorkelers towards the waves. They're coming in high and strong today.

I'm the only one out here which is a little strange but it's too late to worry about that now. I position my body facing the shore and turn my head to wait for a good wave. A few small ones and then a big one, it lifts me up and pulls me but I didn't kick fast enough and it rolls past me and breaks a few feet infront.

Another couple small ones, then a big one on it's way. I don't have much hope but I kick as hard as I can. It lifts, it... breaks right on me! I'm looking down at the water this time. My board starts to shake and I then I understand: I'm riding the wave. I can't see anything, there's salt water in my mouth, I can hear screaming and my face feels strange.

I open my eyes and I can see. I spit out the salty taste of the pacific. The screaming was actually me shouting with excitement. The strange feeling in my face is the ear to ear grin that I haven't had in a long time.

I paddle back to shore. I've caught my first wave.

Published with Google Docs

Short Story 1: Howzit

“howziiiiiiit!” he says louldy right behind my head, my heart rate increasing the longer he draws out the word.

It takes me a moment to understand what he's saying. I turn around. “oh hey”

Everyone here is friendly, so this interaction is to be expected. The last city I was in, everyone ignored everyone. If you weren't being ignored, there was usually trouble.

Weeks go by, I begin to understand the accent. I don't cared if it's english, local dialiect can be pretty fucking far from the english I know.

I give a cigarette to a kid and I receive Mahalo.

I hear “give me da kine” and sort of understand what she wants this time.

One night a giant dressed in white sports jerseys lays on da pidgin right thick. It's a cool evening. The fan is on as well as the AC and I start to sweat. I barely understand a word he says. What's worse is that he wants to know about a computer, he tries using technical terms but uses the wrong ones. All made worse by this new to me language. He's patient and we make it through the conversation, I lose the sale anyway and he walks out empty handed.

Months have passed without problems and now I'm much more comfortable with this town.

I'm riding home one night after closing the shop, what the sodium lights lack in lumens they make up with adventure, I have to be extra alert and aware of my surroundings as I ride and I am. I ride past a couple of kids sitting on the concrete barriers.

“howzithowzithowzit!”

“oh hey!” and I nearly wreck my bike in front of everyone.

Published with Google Docs

Vacation

There are too many digital photographs in the world. There's too much data. Google has made a sweet dime organizing it. I'm taking advantage of it and adding to the excess.

I'm almost tired of talking about a few of these pictures, because I was so proud of them when i took them that I told everyone I knew about it, I looked at them all the time for inspiration and now I'm sick of them So here is the last time I'll present some of these unless there's money involved.

The swimming pool was taken at 1am with 25" exposure, almost no light and is probably the best technical picture I have.








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I like this one because of the motion blur. Again this involved long exposure, I think 4-6". Failing light around 7pm.









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Sometimes my composition hurts it's so good. I took this last night in Captain Cooks' Memorial. I would've grabbed a few more pictures but I was quickly reminded about taking pictures of people I don't know.

In case you think these are super awesome and need to add another feed to your reader, you can keep an eye on my fancy pictures. Here's the feed