Blog
Malefic, part 1
This is the first episode of my new serialized Gothic short story, Malefic. New episode will appear every day or two. Enjoy! ---------- Malefic by Jeffrey Mays I am not sure where Malefic is at this moment. It has never attacked me before, directly. Perhaps I am safe....
The wolf of the steppes
Currently reading: Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse OK. So we don't judge a book by its cover. I listened to this on an audiobook 4 times last year when I had a job that required me to drive down to the Rio Grande valley a lot. This book is SO delicious. What was the last...
Street performer
Imagine you want to create a work of art in fiction writing. Your topic? The nebulous and weighty matter of Identity. Let’s say you draw from all of your life experiences, your belief systems, your worldview. You bring it all to bear. And when it’s all said and done,...
Sorry Please Thank You
I am reading a new book by Charles Yu called Sorry Please Thank You. It is a collection of stories that I bought on a lark because of an article I read in Poets & Writers. Yu seems like a super-friendly, quiet sort of fellow and he has a delightfully creative...
Welcome
My name is Jeffrey Mays. I had another blog for about 4 years where I posted rants and quirky stuff in an undisciplined way, and anonymously. Because it was just for my own fun, and because of the stage of life I was in, I posted a casserole of topics - political...
Conclusion of The Heart in Conflict with Itself
We are trying to understand what William Faulkner meant when he said that all good writing was born of “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself.” I suggested that such a statement requires the existence of some notion of a soul. And it's no good...
A Bathroom Conversation
[I will return to my discussion of Faulkner tomorrow. Below is something I wrote about 3 years ago. Enjoy.] I went into a public restroom today and noticed what is now undeniable empirical evidence that men have developed a totally new language used only in restrooms....
The Heart In Conflict With Itself
(this is part 2 in a discussion about Faulkner's famous statement "the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself, which alone can make good writing..." Read the short Nobel Prize acceptance speech here.) Stories that reveal the innate conflict of humans...
Let’s start from the very beginning
“…the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself, which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about…” This famous quote by William Faulkner was spoken at his Nobel Prize acceptance...
Two Women
Two women worked in a field. One was very diligent. The other took frequent breaks and was considered a bad laborer. The diligent woman was praised by everyone. She gained a reputation with the farm owners and in the markets. But the other woman had only a few...
