Image via Wikipedia
The Old Soldier is back from his walk to the Carnegie Public Library here in Oakland in Pittsburgh. The sky was overcast but the temperature was mild (in the 40s) for December.
I wandered around the library, picking up this book to investigate and scanning this magazine of interest. What serenity. The staff and the public speaking in low voices, with plenty of comfortable chairs and nooks to steal away to, the lighting just right even for the eyes of the Old Soldier when he put on his reading glasses.
I took home a free booklet entitled: Senior Citizens’s Guide to Pittsburgh and I checked out three books of the works of Anais Nin. It was the work of Anais Nin that convinced me years ago that a writer could write a short story about sex without using profanities and vulgarities.
Profanities and vulgarities have their uses, but not in my sex stories.
*****
The flash fiction Submissions tab is at the top of the page.
Related articles
- Home to Beats and literary rebels: Legendary Paris bookstore owner George Whitman R.I.P. (dangerousminds.net)
- Andriessen: Anaïs Nin; De Staat Zavalloni/Synergy Vocals/London Sinfonietta/Atherton: review (guardian.co.uk)
- Anais Nin: A Woman Unafraid to Explore Taboo (even when it was her own) (nymphobrainiac.wordpress.com)
February 24, 2012 at 12:50 pm
[...] Anais Nin: Striking Gold At The Public Library (pittsburghflashfictiongazette.com) Rate this: Share this:TwitterLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: blog, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, creative writing, follow, new ideas, Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, public library. Leave a Comment » [...]
January 2, 2012 at 1:52 pm
[...] Anais Nin: Striking Gold At The Public Library (pittsburghflashfictiongazette.com) [...]
December 20, 2011 at 12:11 pm
I lucked out on a first edition of Nin’s “Little Birds” (no dust jacket, unfortunately) for $3 at True Colors here in Minneapolis just recently. Unfortunately, the business (formerly Amazon Cooperative), the oldest feminist bookstore in North America, is now up for sale and probably will close if they don’t find a buyer: http://truecolorsbookstore.com/
December 20, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Hi, Stephani: I had the “Trade In” stick to the Home Page for several days and it got a good response…Anais Nin opened my eyes about writing erotic content. I learned from her work that a writer can have all the sex he or she wants in a story without using one dirty word. It was a real revelation to me. Do you have any more work of a sexual nature that you would like to see in this magazine? I would love to see it. Guy
December 27, 2011 at 11:15 am
I’ll have to check to see if I have anything else short enough. If you don’t mind doing a reprint, I could submit my story “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking,” the one that’s on Kuma: Black Lesbian Erotica and in the “Longing, Lust and Love” book anthology.
So you get a lot of hits or comments on “The Trade In”? That makes me happy.
December 27, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Stephani, the Front Page of The Gazette is a mixture. “The Trade In” definitely contributed to a lot of hits for the Front Page. I usually ask a writer to only submit something no longer than around 700 words because for some reason if the story is longer my computer with mess up the formatting. But if you have a story for me that’s a little longer (800 to 1,000 words) submit it and we will see what happens. I love your work. “Let Your Fingers Do The Walking” sounds interesting.
Guy