Yesterday was full of fire, soot, ash. Heart-breaking worry. Hurried dashes through parks to capture the horror of our sublime Griffith Park going up in flames. We are still burning. There were flare-ups during the night. We are only 35% contained.
As part of Short Story Month, I've also been thinking of collections set in Los Angeles. I'm working on my own collection set in LA (although a very specific bit of LA) and I've been wondering about others. For research purposes. To know what's out there. To get another take on our fair and now fiery city. I then pushed those thoughts aside as I have a mountain of short story collections to tell you about over the next few weeks.
And now. We are on fire. Smoke spiralling up, blanketing us in filaments of ashy grey. A dirty (not white) and early (not December) Christmas, without the gifts.
What seemed appropriate - important - yesterday, seems less so now. And I can't think of a better way to cross our fingers for our beloved park by pulling out the question I so recently dashed: Any short story collections set in Los Angeles that you've enjoyed? I can't think of one - not a single one - other than the recently published Los Angeles Noir. I've got LA essay collections, I've got novels, I've got memoirs, I've even got social critique and commentary. Yet no short story collections. You?
