the toa newsletter - november 2021

Wait, is there news? Not quite, I'm afraid - I'm just getting the sense again that it might be a good time to hit the brakes for a few weeks. I think we'll go strong up to maybe the end of the month, then we'll turn it over to a somewhat reduced version of TOA - either less frequent or far shorter posts - while I work through another offseason.

I have no desire to deprive loyal readers of something today, so here's a link to the short story "Orientation" by Daniel Orozco. This happens to be the first story in his likeable collection Orientation I just finished last week, but I'm sharing it for another reason. During this moment when I hear plenty of talk about how this office or that company is making a return to in-person setups, it seems fitting to stop and ask - just what is it, exactly, that we gain by having everyone back in one shared space? According to Orozco, it's something different for everyone, which is also kind of true for short fiction. Here's hoping, at the very least, that this story will be a benign thrill, a faint blip, on the dull, flat line of your Sunday.