Come August, the crickets and cicadas weave a blanket of sweet chirrups over every day. To me, it’s a song of coming harvest, autumn, and eventually winter death. To them, they’re just trying to get laid. And who could blame them? In a few short weeks they have to mature and propagate the species. Never
“I Breathe Black and Bleed Orange” It’s not autumn yet. Only for me, it is. For me, even the slight cooling of the air is enough to evoke a fall feeling. I go back to work, back to teaching, on August 22nd. What this means is I have to start getting ready now. I have
Hey, Katey. Come here for a second. Yeah, over here in the corner where no one else can listen in. No offense or anything, but you’re not doing nearly enough pimping of your new novel. I know, I know. It feels weird to post and tweet too much about it. You don’t want to come
Many of you who frequent my site know that I’ve added yet another hobby to my list of growing obsessions: Home Brewing. As autumn draws closer, my interests tend to all collide as I determine the best way to inject Halloween and fall into every last minute of my day. Lucky for me, homebrew was
It has occurred to me the that some of you may not remember who I am. Back when I was a nOOb writer with hardly anything published (actually, now that I think of it, not so different from now) I used a screen name instead of my real name. I don’t know why exactly. Maybe
My normally unruly beard has become downright mutinous in the wake of my summer vacation from teaching. He has gained significant traction in the southern territories and threatens to overtake the border from chin to neck. It won’t be long before Beard and Chest Hair form an alliance. Precautions have been taken. I’ve sent in
All the work I’ve had accepted is quietly waiting to be published. The stories I’ve submitted to magazines are quietly waiting to be read. My novel is quietly waiting to be written. My homebrew is quietly waiting to be bottled. And I’m quietly waiting for Autumn. I’m not a big fan of summer, and this,
It’s been two weeks since I’ve made any additions to my novel. Two weeks of house repairs. Two weeks of company and holiday barbeques. Two weeks of my summer gone. But no writing. If you’ve ever been in one of these situations, you know that the longer you go without writing, the harder it is
The Professor enters the air conditioned classroom. He turns immediately to the white board and writes Writing 666: Q&A. Those in attendance mutter to each other while sneaking glances at this man who proposes to be a beacon of education, yet looks like he’d be more comfortable at a Grateful Dead concert. Certainly administration wouldn’t
I received some great news this morning (as many of you no doubt already know from my twitter feed). My short story “Destination Unknown” was accepted for publication to Arcane Magazine. *Tony begrudgingly pulls out a dusty wood box with fading black letters on its side: SOAP. He tests the rotted wood with one foot,
