100 Days And Nights 1000 Years Ago

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100 Days And Nights 1000 Years Ago

A novella in flashes

Other Works

Thank You For Your Sperm 44 weeks ago (Published)
The Serious Writer Occupies Wall Street [Flash Fiction] 1 year ago (Published)

Marcus Speh

Excerpts from a collection of linked flash fictions centered on the figure of Gisela von Bayern, a Bavarian princess who, in the year 1000, was married off to Hungary where she became the country's first queen. With her husband Saint Stephen I, she christianized large parts of Eastern Europe. After Stephen's death she became Abbess of the convent of Niedernburg near Passau, Germany. Most of the chapters are unpublished but they are available online at http://100daysandnights.tumblr.com with images, including many drawings by my daughter Taffimai (who also created the cover art). As the text proceeds, many additional characters move in and take over the story—just like in real life where control ultimately is an illusion. Since this is a novella in flashes, it doesn't matter where you begin reading it.

Comments

SCAD Atlanta 30 January 2012 - 9:02pm

I really love the format of your piece. The chapters are brief, but they're packed with great detail.

Marcus Speh 31 January 2012 - 5:30am

Hi there, thank you. The novel/la behind these excerpts is now going to be published as a "mosaic novel" by folded word...perhaps a better wording than "flash novel". There's a lot more story to this than what you see here.

Lucien Quincy Senna 13 November 2011 - 7:16am

Oscar Wilde often wrote short stories that sounded like fairy tales. We were all children once and I believe these pieces speak to the unadulterated, not cynical, person within us. They are too good to take down Marcus.

Diana Brawley Sussman 12 November 2011 - 10:25pm

I've read the first 15 pieces and I love your style--like prose poems, beautifully worded and very playful. The fact that these pieces can be read in any order is very intriguing. It's like a book of poems in that way. I wonder though, if you lose some of the momentum, the forward motion that keeps the reader reading, by not having the progression of a plot? These seem like stories told to a child, which ads a nice hint of continuity (as do the characters). But because there's no necessary order, I lose some of my commitment to read, because I don't know whether my questions will ever be answered. For example, who was standing on the wall and then flew like a stone? Was it Gisela? Can she fly? Or did she die? Really beautiful though. Very professional writing.

Marcus Speh 13 November 2011 - 3:07am

Thank you, diana, for your close reading, annotation and for this comment. The stories are currently presented in the order in which they were written; most of them are still in "first draft" so to speak though first draft for a flash is different from first draft for a longer piece. I'm aware that I'm definitely pushing the envelope of the concept of "novella" here: pieces like "NO NAME" or "POOR PIG-DOG" are only the tip of the iceberg...regarding your observation of "forward motion": after no. 15 there is a long barren run of pieces without Gisela or the other main characters introduced so far. When Gisela returns, she now returns often in first person, and there are many flashes that don't seem to have anything to do with the central story. They are like snow flakes that fell to Earth somewhere around the year 1000 in Europe, but that's it. Gisela keeps coming back, sometimes as a young girl, but in a number of episodes she speaks as an old woman. I have removed (visible) traces of modernity, but I have indeed not taken care to preserve the story. I haven't made up my mind yet about this but your comments help! — As for the piece "NIGHT FLIGHT": this is indeed supposed to be Gisela. I begin with a piece of (undeveloped) back story. My original vision was a novel-size text feeding on the life of the historical figure Gisela, but after the 100 day project ended in the real/virtual world, I somehow lost heart to be honest. Perhaps this is one of those stories that need to ripen and be finished at a later stage. — Thank you again!

Marcus Speh 13 November 2011 - 3:09am

[Came here this morning to remove most of the pieces, but your comment makes me reconsider this decision and now I will leave it up as it is hoping for more comments on the overall structure and intuitive architecture of this book.]

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