Mark Budman's Blog
July 27, 2022
The Most Excellent Immigrant
https://livingstonpress.uwa.edu/The%2...
June 4, 2021
An interview with me
An interview with me at CSMS magazine is here.
February 13, 2021
Russian proverbs
Whatever doesn’t kill us, make our doctors richer.
He was married twice, both times unhappily. The first wife left, the second stayed.
When all the rats left the sinking ship, it stopped sinking.
I didn’t want to hurt you. I just lucked out.
February 11, 2021
My covid-19 vaccination
Yesterday, day 1 of the 1st vaccine shot (Moderna). No symptoms. I wondered if they even did it since I turned away, and the shot was painless. I took off the Band-Aid and it had blood on it. Was it-pre-blooded?
Today, Day 2. Body ache, redness on the arm and chills. They really did it.
October 6, 2020
The Shape-Shifter’s Guide to Time Travel
The Shape-Shifter’s Guide to Time Travel ($0.99) by Mark Budman: When 18-yr-old Rose arrives in Temnota from the US as an exchange student, she finds the country even more oppressive than she thought. The Secret Service has just imprisoned Libera, a young rebel leader.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08562TB84
July 26, 2020
Short on Sugar, High on Honey
An exciting new anthology of micro fiction by over 200 authors from around the world.
The authors include: Paul Beckman, Stuart Dybek, Carrie Etter, Sherrie Flick, Avital Gad-Cykman, Tara Lynn Masih, Lynn Mundell, Jonathan Pinnock, Pedro Ponce, Santino Prinzi, Sally Reno, Bruce Holland Rogers, Ravi Shankar, Laura Tansley, Meg Tuite, Deb Olin Unferth, Diane Williams … and many more.
Sample stories:
He lowered his pants. She gasped. He’d misspelled her name. It was permanent. [M. E. Parker]
Callie accepted Trey’s ring, then texted Dave to meet her at the pawnshop. [Joanne Fairies]
Clothes make the man – but you gotta remove them to make the baby. [Lizzi Wolf]
In the kitchen is a picture of a family that almost never happened. [Joseph S. Peters]
As a faithful wife, I faced no remorse. Only regrets. [Nathalie Boisard-Beudin]
Forty years. Lovers always. Married. Finally husbands. [Paul Fahey]
I pull petals from daisies you push up. They answer always: loved me. [Denise R. Graham]
‘If William Blake could see a world in a grain of sand, what might he see in a micro love story? My favorite is by Pedro Ponce: “There was a boy who loved a girl. Such stories rarely end well.” These micros challenge the reader to imagine the agony and ecstasy of whole lives in about a dozen words. Are you up to it? Buy this book and see.’
Robert Shapard, author of Motel and Other Stories; co-editor of Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short-Short Stories, Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America.
‘Sure, a picture can be worth a thousand words, but what is the worth of seven to thirteen words? In Short on Sugar, High on Honey, some sentences are worth an entire plot, particularly the mini-tales of such authors as Beverly Jackson, Julianna Baggott, Stuart Dybek, Paul Lorello, Lauren Becker, Nancy Castaneda, John Briggs, Lisa Rowe Fraustino, and Joanne Faries. Other one-liners work as prompts for story ideas: How might you start a novel with this situation? What would happen next if a character said this? Either way, this anthology opens the door into the imagination of what could be – both on the page and in our lives.’
Marjorie Maddox, author of What She Was Saying, True, False, None of the Above, Local News from Someplace Else.
‘Love is where you find it. Until you lose it. These brief encounters swing both ways, here today, gone tomorrow, but always with instant recognition. You’ve been there. Now here you are again. With its truth burned into your memory.’
James Thomas, co-editor of Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories, Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories, Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories from Around the World.
‘Imagine all your smartest, wittiest friends volleying words around a table, discussing love and all its failings and imperfect beauty. That is this book. By turns tender and arch, full of humor, candor, and wickedly deft insights, Short on Sugar, High on Honey is a delightful, entertaining read featuring some of the best writers working today.’
Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: A Collection of Undomesticated Flash Fictions and Together We Can Bury It; co-author of Rift.
An exciting new anthology of micro fiction by over 200 authors from around the world.
March 19, 2019
On writing
Want to write good fiction or even poetry? Different and innovative would be a good start. Why write something that has already been written?
I can’t imagine my life without waiting for a reply from a publisher.
Got a rejection signed by Bonaparte (I kid you not). Napoleon® rejected BudMan®.
If you write, you are a writer. However, if you write well, you are a good writer. If you write well and make efforts to publish, you’re a published writer. If you don’t do anything, you are a failed writer.
February 26, 2019
On luck
When I was young, I’d say that I don’t need luck since I have talent, but I know better than that now.
February 19, 2019
Your novel’s length
If you were vaccinated against death, fatigue and boredom, would you be able to write a novel longer than 100,000 words? I wouldn’t.
January 8, 2019
Writing platitude #1
If you can say dumb things that sound profound, you are above the grade of a failed writer.
