Joe Young breaks my heart

Go read What Happened Was.

another one! yay!

Another of the authors I love has agreed to send us something for our June issue. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Dear Coca-Cola

"Dear Coca-Cola" is live today at Journal of Modern Post. Whee!

Woohoo!

One of my favorite authors just agreed to send us something for the June issue of SmokeLong. Won't say who just yet, but I am soooooooo excited. Y'know how there are certain authors who, when you go to a book store, you always check one section first to see if they have any new books out? Well, he's one of those for me. So I'm very, very excited. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

a dream

I'll come back and edit this later when I have more time to flesh out the details. Got tons of work to do right now, but I don't want to forget too much of it, so hopefully providing myself with a few of the key points will refresh my memory when I have time to get to it.

smokers' rights
misguided guidance counselor
Eagle Scout with firearms
lesbian serial killer in China
razor blade pacifier
all request radio station
high school like Cabrini Green
modern Centurions
underground parking garage
highway overpass

One of the most vivid dreams I can remember having recently. And parts of it were absolutely terrifying (particularly the serial killer and the Centurions). I hope I can remember it well enough later.

Okay. Back to work.

StorySouth Million Writers Award

Two stories from SmokeLong were selected as notable stories of 2004 in StorySouth's Million Writers Awards. They are Instructions for a Son upon Finding Something of his Father's by Robert S. Jersak and Not the Real Jesus Christ by Bob Thurber. For the full list of honorees, please check out http://storysouth.com/millionwriters/2004notablestories.html.

Candles

My story Candles is live in Zygote in My Coffee. Yay!

Hobart and others

I really haven't written nearly enough lately, which is largely why there have been so few updates here. One thing that I really must write soon is a baseball story. I love baseball. Pitchers and catchers have reported! It's Spring Training! And Hobart is accepting submissions for their annual baseball issue. I love writing about baseball, but I don't think I'm very good at it. Only rarely have I written a story about baseball that I liked at all. I was fortunate enough to have a piece published there last year, Joe Lee's Fastball. And Aaron Burch, the Editor, is a terrific guy. So I very much want to write something to submit to them this year. I have something I wrote several years ago about the 1975 Boston Red Sox that I could send along, but I need to get out of my rut and write something new.

So that's my goal for the next few days: write a good baseball story and submit it to them.

Oh, on the plus side writing-wise, I did get a final piece placed for FRiGG's Spring issue, the one that was rated in the top three at Zoetrope, in fact. I'm really fond of the other two pieces Ellen Parker took as well. And part of what I love about FRiGG is that they like material that a lot of publications don't--both of the other pieces are told from the POV of a man in an unhappy marriage and are pretty understated, I think. One of them might have found a home elsewhere, but "Already Dead" probably wouldn't have seen the light anyplace else. Or maybe I'm wrong and it's highly marketable.

Also, I heard from Brian Fugett, the Editor of Zygote in My Coffee. His computer was taken down hard by viruses (viri?), so his schedule's been pushed back. Look for the issue with "Candles" to appear this coming Monday. (And I have to say he's been great about his communications regarding this. Very much appreciated.)

Oh, and I heard back from Debi Orton at Flashquake about "Christ the King and the Department of Licensing." They passed. All yes votes except one maybe and one no. Ah, well. I still love that piece. Just a matter of finding the right home for it.

Oh, and finally... I had to withdraw "Spike. Resonance." from Outsider Ink since it was taken by FRiGG. Sean Meriweather, the Editor there was also great when I wrote to withdraw it. In addition to congratulating me, he told me he really liked the piece and hoped I'd submit something similar in the future. Yay! Pretty much matches up with all the great things I've heard about him.

Top Three

I know it's a silly thing to be excited about, but I've been a member of Zoetrope since October of 2003. In that time, I've posted 24 flashes in the Flash Wing. I've always gotten good scores on my pieces, but I never cracked the top three in any given month. Until now. And the nifty thing about getting there with this particular story is that almost all of the people who critiqued it are people I don't know that well. So that's kinda cool. And it came at a pretty good time, too. I was feeling kinda frustrated by the publishing world: StoryHouse, which publishes flashes on the sides of coffee bags finally rejected a piece of mine that I submitted a little over a year ago (and they should have--in re-reading it, I'm seeing major changes I want to make), and Zygote was supposed to have a new issue with a piece of mine in it live on Monday. And it still ain't live. So I'm taking good news where I can find it, thanks very much.

Finally!

Woohoo! Finally launched the re-design of SmokeLong today! Go check it out!

a joke

Since I've been so damned busy with getting all of the pages of SmokeLong reformatted and haven't posted anything about writing here in a while, a little joke:

A small child is puzzled about some things, so he goes to his mother.

"Mommy, is God a boy or a girl?"

The mother thinks about this for a while. "God is both a boy and a girl."

This confuses the little boy, and he wanders off. Later, he returns.

"Mommy, is God black or white?"

Again, the mother briefly thinks. "God is both black and white."

Now, the child is thoroughly puzzled, and he goes back to his room for a while. Finally, he thinks he understands and returns to his mother.

"Mommy, is Michael Jackson God?"