Spaghetti-Twisted Thoughts

Name Change & Expanding Content

Greetings fellow Substackers,

I’ve changed my Substack name and thought you should know!

While I’m still an “arty girl” (the genesis of my original Substack name: “Ahty Shtuff”), I’ve been pulled over the last several months into the land of reading and writing short stories. While drawing and painting are still my jam, I am now writing short (and more frequently short short) stories and occasionally pairing them with my drawing.

Given the recent expansion in my creative life, a name change seemed in order. I chose my new name - Spaghetti Twisted Thoughts - from a recent short story of mine that starts like this:

My most cogent, straightforward articulations of my spaghetti-twisted thoughts and feelings come when I'm least capable of writing them down and most susceptible to twisting an ankle.

If you’d like to read more of my writing, you can visit my very new Blog - also called Spaghetti-Twisted Thoughts - where I’m parking my pieces until I feel brave enough to send it directly via Substack newsletter. One short story I wrote recently as part of the mini-1000 challenge this week by

Jami Attenberg

of

Mini 1000

is titled “The Roundabout.” I may share it as a Substack post once I give it another solid revision. If you’d like to read it in its current state, you can find it here.

For now, I’ll leave you with a few images from my Inktober project (31 days of ink drawings in October). I’ve been making my way through The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story. Every time I read a short story, I draw an ink portrait of the author.

I’ve considered writing a thought piece for each story, but have decided against it. I wouldn’t want to spoil the stories for you. They’re too good! Below each ink portrait is a link to the short story. I’d be curious to know if you have read any of these stories and what you think.

Raymond Carver, 1938-1988, considered by many to be America’s Chekhov. Read “Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes” here.

Ursual K. Le Guin, 1929-2018, speculative fiction, fantasy writer, and literary theorist. Read “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” here.

Grace Paley, 1922-2007, American short story author, poet, teacher and political activist. Listen to “A Conversation With My Father” here.

My goal is to send a weekly post with new images and thoughts and perhaps a short short story here and there. Thank you for hanging out with me for a few minutes! If you have any favorite short, short stories or are writing you’re own, please let me know! I’m desparately seeking writing buddies.

Cheers!
Emily