Noticing Newbies

My name is Ben, but here I'll go by the absurd handle of "GoatFish" for some starry-eyed reasons you might not care about. :) If you like to play Chess, you can play me at https://www.chess.com/member/dulytiled. While you might find me on other forums under other handles, I am all out of desire to participate on any Web 2.0 social media anymore, e.g. Facebook and Twitter/X. I think it's better to just focus the attention of one website on one thing, and you have my word that I will be a constructive member here on Writing.com.

Now I don't really want to give away too much, but it's sufficient to say that I have a strong desire to write and self-publish fiction. I'm not even sure yet what type of fiction it has to be, so I suppose it's whatever strikes my fancy and holds it long enough to endure the process. My problem until now has been 1) perfectionism, and 2) getting flummoxed when plans fail. The solution to both, in a few words, is to just take it easy and keep going.

If you're at all interested in what I'm reading right now, I stopped by my local bookstore (the last one in town that isn't Barnes & Noble or Goodwill or an antique store) and found a short story collection called Revelations which contains a few contributions from Clive Barker among others. It's fun to find a relic of the Y2K anxiety like that. There's a great story in there that I immediately jumped into called Aryans and Absinthe by F. Paul Wilson. It's largely about the charisma of Adolf Hitler during Germany's extreme hyperinflation in the 1920's, and what happens when a Jewish man sets his mind on killing him. The climax of that story and the implications of the ensuing conclusion are provocative and quite vivid, and yet even though the story was written in the 90's, I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might search online and find it with fresh eyes.

That's what I got for ya as an introduction. I look forward to my time here, and I wish you all very well in your craft. :)

Sincerely,
Ben