Flash Fiction Featured in Issue#78 of Red Fez

My short short story, "Invasion," is in the current issue of Red Fez. Please check it out, as well as the rest of the issue. This is a great magazine, and I feel honored to be included in it. Thank you to the editors!

A Story for a Story: NEW FLASH FICTION!

Very excited about a short short story that I wrote about Sasquatches, so I am going to share this different, previously unpublished one. The two stories are vastly different from one another, but the Sasquatch one you'll have to wait a few months to read, so enjoy this one instead:

What is Real

The daylight unfolds around them huddling together, burrowing deeper into the sleeping bag, bundled in blankets—a giant cocoon in the middle of the campsite. Sleep still clings to their brains.

The fire burned down to coals long before, and those that remain glow with afterlife, sending off faint waves that warm their spirits more than anything. The cold pierces through like needles, sending shivers through their bodies, and they absorb into each other to fight them off.

Laying there, in a daze, sharing the same breath, the world pulsates to life around them as flashes of twilight patter against their brains. There is just enough of a clearing overhead, that when they look up, it is into a wishing well, and, for just an instant, they can see the future…

Birds chirping, the sun’s rays gaining potency, they linger as long as possible, shutting out pangs of real life, getting in touch with what is real.

[Oh Hell, Here's another one] NEW FLASH FICTION:

The Secret Family Recipe

Duke tried to warn people for years, but the family kept him silenced.

The recipe was passed down through the generations, and millions, maybe even billions, bought and enjoyed those beans—in spite of not knowing exactly what was in them.

The secret was, after all, the gimmick.

Maybe the fact that the family had a talking dog should have clued people in a bit sooner to the fact that they were up to something a bit more nefarious than just making a profit: it’s not pork in those baked beans.

Current Events

My short short story, "Current Events" is featured today at Flash Fiction Magazine!

Check it out:

A sane, well-thought-out, post about sane, well-thought-out things, climbing my way out of the downward spiral, away from oblivion, while I can...

Organization is key.  Over the last month, month and a half -- since school ended for the summer -- my mental stability, decision-making skills, and desire to accomplish things of actual value have all disappeared...  I don't know, maybe I just needed to let loose for a while.

But there comes a time when it is necessary to reign it all back, sort it out, put all those aspects in the proper places, and get things going.  I've got a thesis to write, a class to prepare a syllabus for, three classes to get in the mental discipline to be a be to do well in, the literature subject test of the GRE to study for, papers to polish and get published or give presentations about at conferences, PhD. programs to apply to...

It's all happening so fast and it's a lot to do and I really just need to buckle down, hold on, and get it all done to the best of my ability and hopefully by this time next year I won't be institutionalized.  We'll see.  At least I'll get more writing accomplished that way, I suppose.

I also really need to make my final stand with this manuscript (I am not going to say which version I have chosen; however, if you've been keeping track, it's not the one I hinted at choosing in my last post), and get it all ready to publish.  I feel pretty confident for choosing the one I have chosen, and for the reasons for which I have done so.  In addition to the editing and proofreading, I also have to design the jacket and finalize the description, research the e-book formatting and get it right this time, and all that...

With work and all the other stuff going on in my life, I have to get organized and get to work.  It's the beginning of July and I am already very stressed.  I guess at this level the stress really never goes away.  I wish I was able to be less ambitious and settle for less, but I just am not capable of giving up. Maybe it's pride, maybe is irrational, maybe I'm crazy, maybe it's unnecessary and life is a cruel joke, but I don't care.  I am who I am, I study what I study, I write what I write, I play and like the music that I like, and that is that.

Hopefully after all the dust clears and in a year from now I am preparing for the PhD. program where I have been accepted, my novel is finally published and selling, I am working on my second novel, and I am continuing to progress towards my goal of getting a tenure-track position somewhere and continuing to write novels and short stories...  If not I still have my wife, our future family, our families, and lots of friends.

While certainly it's not all up to me, I can't control everything, there is a lot on my shoulders -- and much of it is what I put there -- and by making it as far as I have in my career I am already beating the odds.

Guerrilla-Posting!!

Should I do some music reviews on here?  I used to do that for The Stater.  I could just go around to local bands and check out the scene, do some casual interviews and really listen to the music and then write a blog about it.  I can even use the band's press photos (which is super easy in the digital age).  I could do albums or go to shows.  Either way I will conduct an interview of some sort.  I will do it through email and do it kind of Rolling Stones style, with my take on it and then a transcription of the interview, verbatim.  Casual.  Honest.

I am just trying to think of more ways I can build my audience on here.  I feel like that this is going to be the key to my success, because it is free and accessible, and, when I do occasionally release something for sale I will self-publish and do it cheaply just so I can make more of the profit, which I can invest into actual advertising.

This way will take longer but ultimately it will build me a loyal audience, because, well, I don't know.  This is free.  I like that, and, as far as I am concerned, free = freedom.

I don't have to be rich or popular but I do want to try and make a living of some sort, but only if I can sustain it with a steady profit, because I still have to pay my bills and fix my credit.

Any move I make at this point in my life has to be strategic.

I feel like I need to watch "Field of Dreams".  If I build it they will come?

I don't know if I can hold my breath on that, to use a few corny expressions in a row.

This lady on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  and she doesn't know the Abby Road album cover.

That is...  Mind-numbing.

February: Infomercials in Spanish at 3 a.m.

She's asleep in the bedroom.

We did laundry together earlier today, so she's resting on fresh sheets, huddled under clean blankets and laying her head on born-again pillow cases.

The dog, of course, took her side -- he now rests comfortably where I would normally be…

Here I am, sprawled out on the small, uncomfortable couch, sulking and restless -- in one hand the clicker and in the other hand my balls.

I am out here in the living room because we had a fight; we don't have fights often, but when we do…

I can't sleep. It's about 3 a.m. and I am watching an infomercial in Spanish for The Magic Bullet -- which is even more entertaining than the English version, even though I have no idea what they are saying.

The fight still lingers in my brain, haunting my every thought… Finally, after hours of stewing on it, I admit I was wrong. I admit it was my fault. Now that I admit it to myself…

I have to figure out how to admit it to her -- and then go about making it up to her…

Maybe next there will be an infomercial in Spanish for Snuggies…

Bead Head by Gabe Gott in 50 to 1!

Please check out my story, Bed Head, in the current issue of the awesome online literary journal, 50 to 1. The URL is: http://50-to-1.blogspot.com/

Please also read the rest of what this wonderful magazine has to offer.

Thanks,
Gabe