Well, now that my MFA program is more or less complete, I can take a quick week-long break and then ... well, get back to writing, I suppose. That's the thing about being a fiction writer: you never really have a day off, do you? There's always a story waiting to be discovered, isn't there? Even now, while I claim to be on vacation, I'm in the process of editing a short story that I want to send to Perigree. Just as soon as they re-open their fiction submissions, of course.

Want to know what Perigree's like? Fantastic. I have just the story for you. This is from "Brain Games," by Mike Finley:

 

­In the months after my stroke and brain tumor diagnosis in 1998, I experienced weird headaches. When I tried to have sex, I was fine for the first few minutes. But as my excitement increased, I involuntarily "bore down," and the pain in my head began to skyrocket. It got so bad I had to stop whatever I was doing immediately.

A couple of times, before my neurologist warned me not to do this, I tried to "go through" the pain. It was impossible—even when I was able to, aherm, finish, I experienced a migraine-intense pain that dwarfed whatever release the orgasm allowed. In fact, the two sensations merged, and the orgasm became unambivalent agony.­

Click here to read the full story.

 

Perigree's a nice literary journal. Enjoy it. Bookmark it. And, above all, remember to support these writers. It ain't exactly a day job anymore.

Cheers,

Ken Brosky