Stories Published Here (fiction extra)
In case you missed them - Seers, hippies and beat preachers
Because some weeks I don't make my self-imposed deadlines, I sometimes post my fiction. One problem is the fact that I'm going in alphabetical order so the quality ranges from professional sales to stories I got published in no pay or token pay markets when I had more confidence than ability.
So the first one is completely free and you don't have to get a subscription or anything to read it. I also don't know why I thought it was good or even worth staging. I blamed heiner muller but hamletmachine rocks.
Substack Extra: After the Revolution
I guess I’m posting John Cheever story reviews on Thursdays and Job (Iyov) chapter responses on Mondays now. I’ve gotten so far behind that I had to switch the days. So as an apology to the readers who want two articles a week, here’s an extra bit. Twenty years ago, I considered it my first sale even though no one paid me.
The next one is called “The Albino Dies,” a gangster noir story about a man who knows that he’s going to die. So I guess that definitely fits the title of Substack. I originally published it in Big Pulp, which for a few years published a bunch of my stories for token payments. I think Big Pulp has shut down, but not before I found myself reading a story in a bar and thinking “Wow, this is vulgar.” That’s not this story.
"The Albino Dies" by Tim Lieder (Fiction)
This is a Substack extra in addition to the current reviews of John Cheever Stories and The Book of Job (Iyov). I sold it to Big Pulp in 2012 and Bete Noire in 2017. I also wrote “Santa Claus Dies” and “Frank Dies,” so I had a theme at the time. If I wrote it now I might have used a different title. I might have self-published it in my
And finally we have “Bop Kabala and Communist Jazz,” the little story that could. I am posting my fiction in alphabetical order when I run out of time and don’t have anything else to publish that week, so it’s been five months since I posted that story and yet it still keeps getting in the top ten. Of course, you have to either become a paid subscriber or buy Shock Totem # 3 in order to read the whole thing, but I guess people like it.
Speaking of which -
"Bop Kabala and Communist Jazz" by Tim Lieder (Fiction Extra)
Note: I just got hit with a ton of jobs right before Pesach, meaning I don’t have time to write the weekly installments of Job chapter analyses and discussions of John Cheever stories (the next one is “The Children” which is pretty great). So here’s a fiction extra. I might write an article about writing this one. It was my first pro-rate sale to Shock Totem. And like all stories written awhile ago, I feel both nostalgia and embarrassment. Like did I really have characters casually tossing off gay slurs? These aren’t loveable characters but still that’s a bit much.
Also, I wrote an article about that story since it was my first pro-rate sale. Pro-rate sales don’t come around every year for me, so I love it when they do come. Sadly, the same day I got paid for that story, I also got paid the same amount for writing a ten page paper for a lazy college student who didn’t want to write their own paper.
Even sadder, the lazy college students now use ChatGPT (which is why I keep putting all these subscribe buttons).
On “Bop Kabala and Communist Jazz” (Reflective Literary Essay Extra)
Before reading this, it might be helpful to read Bop Kabala and Communist Jazz and either buy the book or pay subscribe to read the whole thing.
Ok. That’s it. Again, if you like me, please consider getting a paid subscription.
Also I have a Gofundme.
And I publish books like King David and the Spiders from Mars, which is a great Bible themed book for the High Holidays. (Or whatever holiday you want to celebrate). It features stories by Marsha Mormon and Romie Stott.