hi everyone!
i hope i haven’t upset the delicate balance of your inbox. but i’m pleased to announce this new feature of quiet lightning. yes: prose association.
i had this idea a few weeks ago and neither raj nor i knew exactly how to go about it. i asked alia volz to start it off because the red queen ruled ql1, i thought, and, well, i wanted to see another of her stories. thankfully i also asked her advice: how could we possibly avoid offending the lot of our talented readers by randomly choosing one from each episode? thanks to alia, this is how it works:
at your leisure, check out her story ” Won’t You Be My Neighbor? ” on the new page “s’napse.” anyone who wants to respond, in the form of poetry, fiction, rant, rave, hallelujah et cetera into infinity—give it your best shot. in order to be considered for the next round of s’napse, however, you have to attend the mar 1 edition of quiet lightning.
there, at the intermission, there will be little cards; write your name on one and then put it into my magical hat. at the end of the readings we’ll pick 1 name and that person will have 2 weeks to send in a response, which will then be posted and subsequently read at the next quiet lightning. the process will continue, and flash by flash we’ll create a crazy text together, s’napse. fun! luminous! here are some details:
- anyone can enter.
- s’napse is not to be a narrative but a sequence of impulses. if it’s an idea or an image that strikes you, let’s see where it takes us.
- limit your genius to 2500 words, please (exceptions are always made for supergenius. if you can write a 10,000 word response in 2 weeks that makes us jump up and down like kids on a sugar, high full of goodness … well, you’re entitled to bend the fn rules. we abide the lightning!).
- yes! this means alia will be @ the elbo on mar 1 to read “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”.
- in the case that you get excited now, start a response and aren’t pulled out of my hat, why not finish and submit for the next quiet lightning?
- authors retain all rights. we want only to be a synapse.
i hope that’s clear and compelling! enjoy the story. we will talk soon.
love,
evan and raja