Becky Franzel, like Gene Gazelka, is another typospherian who's been through the wringer and made art from it. When her boyfriend committed suicide years ago, she turned grief into writing. She also has a redemptive sense of humor, and she writes the right way:
In a stage play at QWERTYFEST 2024, Becky played a judgmental copy editor.
In the title story, a human female tries to understand a frog secretly named Harold Steven Jones VI.
Yes, Becky has a lot of fun with names. There's "dfk Gary" from "planet dfkjss09sdjfksl," who meets "Earth Gary" in a quick and terminal encounter. And another alien who crash lands in "his old MMNNPuh-Puh-Puh Model 8."
Then there's the portrait of Stevan the Van, Becky's 1979 Chevy that is "nerdy," "clunky," "archaic," and beloved.
In the surreal dystopia "Toyotathon!!!" (maybe my favorite story), in a time after "The Unmentionable Thing," in a landscape "where the omnipresent orange glow of distant fires painted everything in apocalyptic light," a couple of survivors continue the tradition of the yearly car sale ... even though there are no more Toyotas.
Other stories have darker topics—anorexia, death ... but a refreshing and offbeat perspective is never far away.
For an entertaining and unpredictable reading experience, get your hands on a copy of Ohhh. Okay. I Think I Get it Now.
PS: Do you have a story of your own you want to publish? Consider Becky's publishing house, Aw Shucks!
Becky's Instagram:
Thank you so much for this review. My favorite part in this journey is seeing which story resonates the most to readers. Toyotathon is definitely up there for me, too, simply because it was just so dang fun to write.
ReplyDeleteI bet it was! Thank you for the stories.
DeleteWell, I approve of her choice of SM7 and black feline friend. Always good company. (:
ReplyDelete