I’m terrible at social media, but it has its upsides. One is the people you meet. Actually, that’s the only upside, but it can be a big one.

Fred Nolan is a dude. I can’t say it any other way. You can find him on X at @The_Fredwords and at his blog. On X, we have some vigorous, often hilarious discussions with him and @mkpaxson and @KatieDawn3. We go into some absurd territories. We laugh. We needle each other. We make light. It’s a wonderful thing, finding people like this, and that’s why I had to do this review.

Fred’s blog provides a bit of a roadmap to what we should read of his published materials. He suggests a story called “Wasps”, published in Gingerbread House Literary Magazine in 2018. Today, I had a look at it in some (shockingly) free time.

I read it twice. I wanted to make sure I got the tenor right. That I fully understood who we were talking about. In my opinion, there’s little to no relationship between the tone and words I see in this story and what I know of Fred Nolan, and I find that endlessly interesting. I think that’s what makes a writer. Someone who is distinct human being but that is able to transport themselves into a completely different world, one that does not exist other than in their mind. I find often that writers make the mistake (that’s a tough word to apply, but I’m standing by it) of journaling their stories. Their works end up being about their feelings and observations, a journal entry that they want us to read. But that’s not what we want to read. We want fully-fleshed stories that transport us and make us wonder, and that stay with us afterwards.

I’m not going to spoil what Wasps is about, but this is a story. It’s a complete image of a few people, even though the economy of words is on full display here. No meticulous attempt to fill in all the blanks; there’s an openness to leave open spaces that we can fill in. Flawed characters, this is just how they are. This is probably just how we are, if we distilled our lives into that economy of words. I think this is a trick of the writer, being able to do this. I’m going to read this story again, but I’m writing this review to encourage you to read it as well, and to check out Fred’s other stories. Writer-Fred and dude-Fred are different beasts. I think that’s just so cool.

One line that I love in a deeply passionate way: “You see researchers in the field, peer review with pickaxe and sunburn.” Who writes such stuff. More of this in the world, please.

Coming out of this story, I feel restless. You know that feeling, if you’re a writer. It’s called inspiration, when you get down to it. It’s the nagging sensation that you best get off your butt and create something, too. Hurry up.

So social media… I suck at it, but there’s an upside. You meet some great people along the way. And more than that, you meet some great writers.