Guitar Event

by William Walsh

I’d like to thank Steve Himmer for providing this Residency at Necessary Fiction this month. I had a great time, even though it was a scramble some nights putting together a postable fiction.

The Residency prompted me to open lots of old files and scan through many notebooks. I worked on stories that I’d abandoned years ago and I found near-complete stories hiding in odd places on my computer. I inched a few current works-in-progress to the finish line. And I made a few Frankenstein stories out of two (or three) incomplete shorts. I also cheated a few times, posting pieces that appeared in my recent Keyhole Press mini-book PATHOLOGIES.

The Residency made me think about an article I read years ago about David Bowie when he was working with Tin Machine. It was an “in studio” interview in either SPIN or ROLLING STONE. Bowie was working through a song with Reeves Grabrels, his guitarist, and he told Gabrels the song needed a “guitar event”. Not a solo, but a “guitar event”.

In terms of story structure, the guitar event is a nice little additional component. If Bowie’s song can be composed of a few verses, a repeated chorus, a bridge, a guitar solo, and a guitar event, then a short fiction can be made complete with a verbal guitar event (a short character riff, surprising detail about the setting, or a whack piece of dialogue).

Probably more to be said about this. But I’ve got a wedding to go to later on and a five-year-old to play with now.

Thanks to those who read along this month and sent me nice notes. And best of luck to Matt Briggs, August’s Writer in Residence at Necessary Fiction.

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William Walsh is our July 2010 Writer In Residence. He is the author of Pathologies, a new mini-book from Keyhole Press. He is also responsible for Questionstruck, Without Wax, and, forthcoming from Keyhole Press in February 2011, Ampersand, Mass. and Unknown Arts. His stories and derived texts have appeared in Annalemma, Artifice, Quick Fiction, New York Tyrant, Juked, No Colony, LIT, Rosebud, and other journals. He blogs weekly at The Kenyon Review.

Bunny

by William Walsh

Bunny Yeager had a camera. Bunny Yeager had big ears. Bunny Yeager smelled of sawdust. Bunny Yeager disliked carrots. Bunny Yeager never learned to ride a bike. Bunny Yeager debuted at seventeen. Bunny Yeager rose at sunrise. Bunny Yeager packed one bikini in an ancient suitcase. Bunny Yeager shot in color. Bunny Yeager liked girls wet. Bunny Yeager read Spillane. Bunny Yeager hopped to it. Bunny Yeager detested piety. Bunny Yeager posed Bettie Page on a synthetic bearskin rug. Bunny Yeager wrote a fan letter to a teenage Natalie Wood. Bunny Yeager said, “More like that.” Bunny Yeager owned two boats. Bunny Yeager voted republican because she knew it pleased her dad. Bunny Yeager said, “What is this pertaining to?” Bunny Yeager touched herself in the darkroom, underneath a hot red light. Bunny Yeager received communion. Bunny Yeager paid her bills. Bunny Yeager wasn’t one for making friends. Bunny Yeager smoked menthol cigarettes. Bunny Yeager never married. Bunny Yeager could take Hugh Hefner. Bunny Yeager seduced men in their sleep. Bunny Yeager played backgammon on the beach. Bunny Yeager lived to say, “Please disrobe.”

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William Walsh is our July 2010 Writer In Residence. He is the author of Pathologies, a new mini-book from Keyhole Press. He is also responsible for Questionstruck, Without Wax, and, forthcoming from Keyhole Press in February 2011, Ampersand, Mass. and Unknown Arts. His stories and derived texts have appeared in Annalemma, Artifice, Quick Fiction, New York Tyrant, Juked, No Colony, LIT, Rosebud, and other journals. He blogs weekly at The Kenyon Review.