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What a happy little coincidence: To commemorate the great Bob Ross, who died on this day 29 years ago, have some fanfiction. My short story 'Without paint, there would be no suffering' was published today over at "A Thin Slice of Anxiety"

I had a little writer's block in the previous weeks but at the same time I had the urge to do something artistic. So, I cut up some texts and reassembled them into something new, something absurd, something weird. Usually I feel bad when I don't write, so writer's block in my case is often a vicious circle (can't write -> feel bad -> can't write etc.) but doing this cut-up thing really helped filling this non-writing period and overcoming the block. And it's fun.

For those interested what came out of it, you can find one of the things published in this lit mag: https://donotsubmit.net/the-midsummer-merchant-king-romeo-richard-of-venice-and-the-tempest-hamlet-nights-juliet-lear-a-dream-ii-by-felix-anker/

So, I'm currentlich reading Kobo Abe's "Kangaroo Notebook" and I'm a bit confused about his use of tense shifts.

In this scene in the picture, he starts with "I stepped" then "I noticed" but then he proceeds in present tense "It looks", "He doesn't", "He's", and in the end he switches back to past tense "the boy was having", "he wasn't", etc.

So, I'm wondering what's the function of this. This all happens at the same time, so it's no backflash.

Could it be that the present tense sentences are internal thoughts at the moment, while the past sentences are descriptions?

Tried to experiment a little bit and this story came out of it. If you like surrealism and experimental texts you might like it. Thank you for reading

I wrote a lot of short stories last month, submitted them, got a lot of rejections, but this one found a home in one of my favourite indie mags. So, don't let rejections get you down, just continue submitting

Not the best, but still something I submitted without expecting publication

This post might sound like an advertisement (which it partly is, of course, you don't try to get published if you don't want people to read your stuff) but I want to use this post to encourage other new writers.

It took a long time to find a home for this story and I thought about giving up on it when rejections started piling up in my inbox. I'm sure there are others who feel the same from time to time, but please continue to submit.

For those interested, here is the story: https://stateofmatter.in/fiction/milk/

I hope it's okay to share this here. I originally wrote the story in German but unfortunately it's nearly impossible to get humorous stories published in German literary magazines, so I translated it into English and sent it to various magazines.

For those interested, below is the link. I would appreciate comments on what to improve.

The story is set in the 1920s in rural Germany, so you might find some old German names.

https://www.almamagazines.com/fiction-and-poetry/the-clocks-ticking-karl/