New fiction @ Wigleaf

If you like the short fiction, then please point your world wide inter-browser to Wigleaf, which published my piece Hang Up.

Go to the homepage here to read a wide assortment of fantastic stories, along with a postcard I wrote to the journal. No, not to the editors: to the journal. I love this idea, postcards. I still send postcards, and buy postcard stamps, though I may be the only person I know to do so. My old postcard pen pals now send e-mails, or post things on walls. Bah. Post it to the post, is what I wish. Have you ever stopped to think of the miraculous nature of the United States Postal Service? I mean, really. I have always loved getting and sending mail. When I was a child, I started a stationery business, mainly so I would get more mail. But I also liked providing the means for other people to make mail. I think I earned a grand total of five bucks, two of which my mother made me return when I couldn't fulfill a special order. When you're nine and you run out of a particular type of sticker (Mrs. Grossman's, large mice), and you can't find any more at the store, and there's no Internet or catalog from which to order, then you, as a nine-year-old, have to close the shop.

Today I read an article (in the newspaper! Can you imagine?) that the post office, to save money, is seriously considering five-day delivery rather than six. I say: bring it. Or rather, don't bring it, not on Saturdays. Here's the thing: the mail arrives once each day. You either receive what you'd hoped to receive, or you don't, in which case you have to wait until the next day at approximately that time. There's no constantly refreshing a web page, there's no anxiety related to the fact that some people expect 24/7 work accessibility, and expect instantaneous replies to messages sent on what is traditionally known as a "weekend." It's out of your hands and placed into the capable hands of our mailmen and women. I like to take at least one day off on the weekend. Letter carriers of our nation, you should take two.

It's not that I am e-mail averse; I am merely overwhelmed. And deep down, I am an old-fashioned girl in a newfangled world. The other day, I used the word "highfalutin" in absolute seriousness. Shoulda written it on a postcard instead, and mailed it across the land.