Writer's Commentary: Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year

On Post: Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year

Date: January 19

Find it here

I haven’t talked much (at all) about the images I paired with my stories because, frankly, I was disappointed with most of them. I was trying to multiculturally sensitive and represent the story without giving it away and choose an aesthetically pleasing image and, sadly, my Google Image search skills were often not equal to the task. Especially when it came to finding pictures of something besides white folks. At a certain point, I just kind of gave up (as you can probably tell).

I say all this as prelude to declaring that this is one I am actually proud of.  

It doesn’t match the hair described in the entry, but I think it is striking and attention grabbing in a way that most of my other choices never reached. So it caught the “feeling” of the piece even if it did fail to literally reflect it.

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I have real affection for this piece. I have no idea if it “works” per se. I’m not sure it is as creepy as I would have liked. I do not have a lot of experience writing thriller-esque villains and I suspect that it probably shows. I am largely ok with that though. It is one of those pieces that I like the idea so much that even if my execution is as questionable as I suspect it might be, I still dig it.

I am also kind of proud of how I actually managed to work in most elements of the song into the “protagonist’s” MOs. The only one I couldn’t make it work is “Therapists pumping through your speakers” line, which may be my future slogan when I go private practice. “Tim Stevens: The Therapist Pumping Through Your Speakers, Delivering Just What You Need.”

Just because the Project has ended doesn't mean I still don't value your feedback. Feel free to let me know on Twitter (@UnGajje) or drop me a note at tim[dot]g[dot]stevens[at]gmail[dot]com or on Facebook. If you see anything you like, I am all over the net too, so please check out my other works at Marvel, Complaint of the Week at the Living Room Times, and New Paris Press (which is now up and running) or my various 140 character missives on that Twitter account.