The deadline for the latest volume of Cold Hard Type is around the corner: March 1st, 2022. (I’ve attached the promo here.) This volume, titled Margin Releases: Typewritten Tales of Transgression, is more pliable in terms of genre. There are many ways to envision and represent transgression. See the link for the open-ended prompt:

https://loosedogpress.blogspot.com/2021/10/call-for-submissions-margin-releases.html?m=1

In terms of my own writing, my first impulse was to imagine an existential antihero. I love a good misfit, someone who eludes understanding and who steps out of, or falls from, societal norms and mores–anything by Dostoevsky, Camus, or Kafka. I also enjoy the disturbing worlds of Travis Bickle and Walter White. But that’s only one way to imagine transgression, and my mind has been preoccupied with more large-scale issues.

I’ve been stuck between two stories, one experimental and surreal, the other tangible and (if executed correctly) heart wrenching. But they share the same message, which, for fear of upsetting my muse, I’ll keep to myself for now. What a strange superstition, a fear of transgression in itself.