Thursday, January 15, 2009

TUFHAEMDSMIMSW

I submitted a short story for Lily Hoang and Blake Butler's Innovative Fiction Anthology yesterday. The story kinda functions as a deleted scene for the novel, meaning that, Salim, the main character, types a lot of the actual story in first person on a laptop. Certain files were deleted and not included in the final version (of the novel). If I end up writing more deleted scenes, I hope to have a collection of them published with illustrations by an Iranian/American friend of mine.

We'll see if this makes the cut for the anthology. Here's the first few paragraphs of the deleted scene:

In the video, it’ll be different.


Lying awake.


Sleep repels itself, allotting only an hour rest. And what shallow sleep settles is disturbed by weird dreams about men tossing dogs off buildings – terriers and German shepherds and newborn rottweilers yelping and spinning – and when the men run out of dogs they throw themselves. When the last man leaps, I wake up. Cold.


The night has no soundtrack but creeks and snaps. Every bird chirp could be a radio squeaking attack, every splash embellishes into boots rushing us blind. Restless, I’ve sat up so many times I probably have a six pack from paranoia – it could be marketed as The Ultimate, 480 Minute, Don’t Stab Me in My Sleep Workout.

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