There are short stories, and then there are Corwin Fox short stories - and those don鈥檛 get much shorter.
The B.C. musician and music producer has added 鈥榩ublished author鈥� to his portfolio, with Kill Love - a book of one-sentence stories.
Fox said the idea for a book of one-sentence stories came by happenstance.
鈥淚 started writing one-sentence stories by accident - I was just trying to crack up my bandmate, Laurel,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was replying to an email and I just wrote this funny once-sentence response that turned into a story - which is in the book, incidentally鈥� I cracked myself up; it was just funny. But then that night I started thinking鈥� I wondered what else I could do?
鈥淪o I just started writing more to see what I could do. Could I write sad ones, funny ones, dark ones? What can I do with a one-sentence story. I was writing them every night until I had dozens of them. Then I realized there was a theme tying a whole bunch of these together, so I just cleaned it up, grouped them, and made Kill Love.鈥�
The Vancouver Island-based artist鈥檚 one-sentence stories are akin to extremely free verse poetry. There is no consistent pattern or word count from one story to the next. Some stories are 20 lines long; others are five words long.
鈥淚t鈥檚 almost a literary form - or it could be a literary form,鈥� said Fox.
Corwinisms, if you will.
Fox said some of the stories are autobiographical, while others are pure fiction. There are even stories of invented words, such as 鈥榓mpersymphonialocity鈥� - the rate of speed at which two or more musical ideas merge. 鈥楩ox said the book is 鈥榥ot really for kids - there is some dark and weird stuff in it, along with some cuss words and stuff. I wanted it to be really unfettered and experimental, but also to make it very personal.鈥�
As much as anything, Fox figures once he starts doing music gigs again, Kill Love will be a nice addition to his merch table.
鈥淭he state of the music industry has changed so much,鈥� he said. 鈥淣owadays people buy computers that don鈥檛 even come with a CD drive, so some people still buy CDs, but not a lot of people; some people by vinyl, but not a lot of people; some people are even buying cassettes again, but most people consume their music these days through streaming.
鈥淪o I started thinking, what am I going to sell, once I go back on tour, because I will do gigs again, and it will be great, because you need your merch money. No one has CD players anymore鈥� I already supplement my merch tables with hats or shirts, but I鈥檓 not super into clothing, so鈥�
鈥淭hat makes it sound like the impetus of writing this book was an economic one, but it wasn鈥檛. That鈥檚 just a secondary thing. I was already creating this stuff and I just felt compelled to make the book - the same as writing a song.鈥�
Kill Love is available at Moon鈥檚 Records in his hometown of Cumberland, or order online at Fox鈥檚 website,
terry.farrell@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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