Wednesday, July 15, 2009
SRV and Barry
During today's Laying the Foundation training (for pre-A.P. teachers) we did a narrative free-write while we listened to what someone said was Stevie Ray Vaughan's rendition of "Little Wing." Sounded more soulful/funky than the SRV/LW recordings can find online, but who knows. Anywho, this is what I wrote (with minor revisions).
(Ronny Jordan's "The Jackal" has a similar vibe to the song played in class.)
Barry walked down the street as the lightpoles phased on. A warm breeze blew, mixing the smell of produce, beer, cigarette smoke, and perfume. The evening was amber, and Barry leaned back as he strolled, making it look easy. Making it look good.The exercise was to demonstrate tone. Any guesses as to what I was shooting for?
A car pulled by, a long car with fins, and Barry nodded. Driving's fine, but a night like this he had to be out in it. Anton, the guy who sold maybe twenty bucks a day in his junk store, caught his nod and returned it, kept sweeping his stoop.
Ladies were beginning to trickle out on the avenue, their workday ending, most—some, their day just beginning at six. But it was good. It was all good. Barry and the ladies admired each other and the drivers of the long cars. It was all good. And more than that, it was right. It was all right.
Barry took a deep breath, inhaled the oncoming night, held it in. Closed his eyes and let it out slow. Slow and fine. Slow and fine and easy.
(Ronny Jordan's "The Jackal" has a similar vibe to the song played in class.)
Monday, May 04, 2009
Cool Like Me
Just got a copy of Issue #2 of Coach's Midnight Diner, which includes my short story "Hinky Jenks."
Look how cool I am now.
Jealous? Don't be. Order your own copy!
Look how cool I am now.
Jealous? Don't be. Order your own copy!
Labels: CMD, Coach's Midnight Diner, In Print, Writing
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Diner #2: Order's Up!
Coach Culbertson has posted the author list and story order for Issue #2 of Coach's Midnight Diner. My story, "Hinky Jenks," appears fourth.
Pre-Order for $15.
Pre-Order for $15.
Labels: Coach's Midnight Diner, In Print, Writing
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Take THAT, Stewie
Back in Sept. '06 I linked to a Family Guy clip (since removed from YouTube) where Stewie razzes Brian about "that novel [he's] been workin' on."
Well, it took longer than the year I mentioned in the post (about 4 years, one month, total), but the novel is done. Done and sent forth to find its way in the world.
One more thing I can check off the "before you're 40" to-do list.
<sigh>
Now to start work on my Sherlock Holmes/Pygmalion musical: "My Dear Watson."
Well, it took longer than the year I mentioned in the post (about 4 years, one month, total), but the novel is done. Done and sent forth to find its way in the world.
One more thing I can check off the "before you're 40" to-do list.
<sigh>
Now to start work on my Sherlock Holmes/Pygmalion musical: "My Dear Watson."
Labels: Writing
Sunday, September 21, 2008
"Nolan McGarry" Revisitado
Finding myself with a little extra time on my hands tonight, I decided to Google my short story titles to make sure no one had reprinted them without permission -- or worse, claimed them as their own.
No one had, but I did find a Spanish-language review of one of my short stories, "Nolan McGarry: Space Hobo".
Spanish review: aquí; translated via babelfish: here.
Olé
No one had, but I did find a Spanish-language review of one of my short stories, "Nolan McGarry: Space Hobo".
Spanish review: aquí; translated via babelfish: here.
Olé
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Coming Soon: "Larry King and the Angel"
Yeah, it's a Wittenburg Door story.
Pull-quote from the magazine Table of Contents:
Hmmmmmmmm....
Subscribe. You know you want to.
Pull-quote from the magazine Table of Contents:
“Gosh darn” or “dang it” don’t generate the same kind of paperwork.
Hmmmmmmmm....
Subscribe. You know you want to.
Labels: In Print, Wittenburg Door, Writing
Monday, March 24, 2008
That "Thing About Spiders"
My short story "A Thing about Spiders" is now available online at Fear and Trembling magazine.
Here's the opening:
And, c'mon, how can you resist a short story with a tagline like "Revenge is a dish best served with something other than pork and beans"?
Enjoy!
Here's the opening:
Roger woke from two hours’ sleep, listening. Footsteps? Engine ticking itself cool? Anything? He let out his breath long and slow. Only a dream.Hmmmm ... intriguing.
Just to make sure, he grabbed his shotgun and removed the black-rubber knothole plug at the front of cabin. The road leading up from Santa Cruz was quiet. Peepholes in the windowless north and south walls showed more of the same, just a four-point black-tail buck fifty feet beyond the north wall begging to become a hatrack. The last thing Roger needed, though, was for a game warden to hear the blast and stop by to check permits.
There was no need to peek out the fourth wall, in the bedroom. He was pretty sure they weren’t sending frogmen after him.
And, c'mon, how can you resist a short story with a tagline like "Revenge is a dish best served with something other than pork and beans"?
Enjoy!
Labels: Fear and Trembling, In Print, Writing
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Hinky Preview
My short story "Hinky Jenks" is the back-of-the-book freebie in Relief Quarterly 2.1. Later this year the story will appear in Coach's Midnight Diner II (Eclectic Boogaloo?), but you can read it -- and a bunch of other fine fiction, poetry, and creative non-fic -- now in Relief.
Here's the intro:
Kind of a film noir meets The Twilight Zone wrapped up in a Hitchcockian undershirt sort of thing. How many other stories make that sort of claim?
Get your copy (or a whole year's worth) today!
Here's the intro:
Hinky Jenks, Madelyn Argent and me, we could’ve changed the world. Now I’m here alone with the envelope from Maddy’s father, and the priest with a click-clack heel on one of his shoes is walking the cellblock toward me.
Damn you, Jenks.
My death warrant expires in nine hours. No chance of a reprieve.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Kind of a film noir meets The Twilight Zone wrapped up in a Hitchcockian undershirt sort of thing. How many other stories make that sort of claim?
Get your copy (or a whole year's worth) today!
Labels: Coach's Midnight Diner, In Print, Relief Journal, Writing
Thursday, January 31, 2008
First Sale o' 2008
A short story of mine, "A Thing about Spiders," has been accepted for publication at Fear and Trembling magazine.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
Labels: Fear and Trembling, Writing
Saturday, January 19, 2008
"Cameron's Next Religious Exposé" Redux
"Greeks Protest Cameron's Next Religious Exposé," the article I wrote that appeared in the Nov/Dec '07 issue of The Wittenburg Door, is now available as a feature on their website.
Lots of other good stuff in that ish. Subscribe.
Lots of other good stuff in that ish. Subscribe.
Labels: In Print, Wittenburg Door, Writing
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Meeting Melody and Mike
(Yes, class, that's alliteration.)
Last night we drove out to Arlington to attend a book signing and reading by Melody Graves. Melody was one of the authors who appeared in the premiere issue of Coach's Midnight Diner, and she was reading a new short story and signing copies of CMD. The reading was well attended and the book sold well.
In addition to getting to meet Melody, I also got to meet another CMD author (and Dallasite), Mike Medina. Good times.
The Relief Journal website has more on the signing and an interview with Melody. Enjoy!
Last night we drove out to Arlington to attend a book signing and reading by Melody Graves. Melody was one of the authors who appeared in the premiere issue of Coach's Midnight Diner, and she was reading a new short story and signing copies of CMD. The reading was well attended and the book sold well.
In addition to getting to meet Melody, I also got to meet another CMD author (and Dallasite), Mike Medina. Good times.
The Relief Journal website has more on the signing and an interview with Melody. Enjoy!
Sunday, January 06, 2008
2007: Reading and Writing
Around the end of summer, last year, I stopped logging the books I finished reading. I've done my best to figure out what I read, but still come up about five books short of my book-a-week goal. Here's what I read:
I did manage to read a short story a week, making it through all 31 stories in the Dorothy L. Sayers anthology and 24 stories in The Art of Fiction (plus the short stories we read in class).
Although I did worse than recent years in the reading department, I more than made up for it with writing. 18 short stories and satirical "news" articles published, second-placing in the Genesis contest (opening pages of novel), two stories slated for publication this year (with another one or two in limbo). All that and upwards of $800 makes for a pretty good year for me.
How was your 2007?
- Fight Club
- Unfortunate Events: The End
- Masterpieces in 3-D*
- Seventy Times Seven
- Germ (ARC)
- The Hard Goodbye (graphic novel)
- Trinity (3 of 3 - graphic novel)
- Batman Gothic (graphic novel)
- Deadline
- House of Invention*
- Coral Moon
- Lisey's Story
- Flannery O'Connor: The Complete Stories
- It's Not Funny if I Have to Explain It
- 10 Classics in 10 Minutes
- The Utter Zoo Alphabet
- Mystery & Crime (The NY Public Library Book of Answers)*
- The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
- 24 Declassified: Cat's Claw
- Star Trek: The Modala Imperitive (graphic novel)
- Cell
- Tribulation House
- Unknown Man No. 89
- Teaching for Student Achievement Guidebook*
- The Complete Guide to Editing Your Fiction*
- The Crucible
- Broken Prey
- Elementary, the Cartoonist Did It
- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Of Mice and Men
- A Raisin in the Sun
- Napalm and Silly Putty
- Secret Window*
- Shutter Island
- Of Other Worlds*
- Art Masterpieces in 3D*
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Iron Joe Bob
- Rising Stars (graphic novel)
- The Death of Superman (graphic novel)
- Firefly: The Official Companion - Vol. 1
- How Fiction Works*
- Coach's Midnight Diner
- The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts
- Soul Circus
- The Pearl
- The Gashlycrumb Tinies
*non-fiction; average pages per book: 266
I did manage to read a short story a week, making it through all 31 stories in the Dorothy L. Sayers anthology and 24 stories in The Art of Fiction (plus the short stories we read in class).
Although I did worse than recent years in the reading department, I more than made up for it with writing. 18 short stories and satirical "news" articles published, second-placing in the Genesis contest (opening pages of novel), two stories slated for publication this year (with another one or two in limbo). All that and upwards of $800 makes for a pretty good year for me.
How was your 2007?
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Got Issues?
The Wittenburg Door has added the contents of Issue #214 on their website. This is the Christmas Issue I mentioned a while back.
Good stuff throughout; among my faves are William Jolliff's "They'll Know We are Christians by Our Stuff," Fred Allen's "Things Jesus Wouldn't Say," and Jane Lebak's "The Book of Cat-Lovers." (TBoCL is funny even if you, like me, aren't a cat lover.) Among Jamie Crossan's "Vision Statements You're Not Likely to See" is
Check it out.
Good stuff throughout; among my faves are William Jolliff's "They'll Know We are Christians by Our Stuff," Fred Allen's "Things Jesus Wouldn't Say," and Jane Lebak's "The Book of Cat-Lovers." (TBoCL is funny even if you, like me, aren't a cat lover.) Among Jamie Crossan's "Vision Statements You're Not Likely to See" is
"We dream of a time when evey soul shalt love the timbrel. Verily."I've been to that church (though that wasn't actually their "official" vision statement...).
Check it out.
Labels: In Print, Wittenburg Door, Writing
Friday, November 09, 2007
R'lyeh Redux
Although my short story "In R'lyeh, Jesus Walks" has just come out in Coach's Midnight Diner, it will also be appearing in the very near future in the Best of Relief '06-'07 journal.
Collect 'em all?
Yes. Collect 'em all.
One of the awesome things about being pubbed in CMD was having my story appear with those of some folks I knew and knew of (Linda, Mark, Matt, Suzan, etc.). This time around it gets to hang out with stories by buddies Angie Poole, Mike Snyder, Chris Fisher, and a piece by publishing maven David Long. Lots of other cool folks in there, too; the aforementioned are just the ones I've had the privilege of meeting personally.
Once again, be sure to pick up a copy.
Collect 'em all?
Yes. Collect 'em all.
One of the awesome things about being pubbed in CMD was having my story appear with those of some folks I knew and knew of (Linda, Mark, Matt, Suzan, etc.). This time around it gets to hang out with stories by buddies Angie Poole, Mike Snyder, Chris Fisher, and a piece by publishing maven David Long. Lots of other cool folks in there, too; the aforementioned are just the ones I've had the privilege of meeting personally.
Once again, be sure to pick up a copy.
Labels: CMD, In Print, Relief Journal, Writing
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Slipped My Mind
Meant to blog on this earlier in the week but didn't. I've got another short in The Door Insider: "Osteen Outdoes Virgin Mary, Pope in Miraculous Appearances".
Among the nifty revampings at Door website is the ability to comment on the newsletter articles. Have fun.
Among the nifty revampings at Door website is the ability to comment on the newsletter articles. Have fun.
Labels: In Print, Wittenburg Door, Writing
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Christmas in Wittenburg: Threepeat
Two years ago my first-ever story ("God's Creation Blog") was published in the Nov/Dec 2005 issue of The Wittenburg Door. Last year I also had a story in the 2006 year-end edition (2007 CCM Concert Forecast).
Well, in what I hope is becoming an annual tradition, I've got a story in issue #214. This time around I chronicle the hullabaloo surrounding James Cameron's follow-up to The Lost Tomb of Jesus. From the article:
In other Door-related news, there's a new website for the mag being stress-tested. Following a story titled "Titus Refuses To Come Out of His Trailer" (the lighter side of the early church's circumcision dilemma), this comment appears (from Derek):
Well, in what I hope is becoming an annual tradition, I've got a story in issue #214. This time around I chronicle the hullabaloo surrounding James Cameron's follow-up to The Lost Tomb of Jesus. From the article:
"I was on vacation-slash-scouting trip," Cameron said, "looking for the right place to film my next feature, Piranha III: When Tilapia Go Bad, when I found a graveyard up on a small bluff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Inside there were headstones with the names Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, and more. A cluster of graves like this can only mean one thing: the Greek Immortals were more mortal than we thought."Expect a link to buy a copy for yourownself soon.
In other Door-related news, there's a new website for the mag being stress-tested. Following a story titled "Titus Refuses To Come Out of His Trailer" (the lighter side of the early church's circumcision dilemma), this comment appears (from Derek):
"This is the funniest thing I have read from you guys since the God's blog and of course watching God stuff. It is so refreshing to find a magazine with the same humor as I do in finding funny things about christianity...."Always nice to hear from a fan. (Of course, if Joe Bob Briggs has raised the bar I've got to step up...)
Labels: In Print, Wittenburg Door, Writing
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Amazonian
Coach's Midnight Diner, which includes my short story "In R'lyeh, Jesus Walks" snd begins shipping this weekend, is available for sale at Amazon. Twenty bucks. Spend a five spot on any of the half-dozen or more other things available at Amazon and basic shipping costs are waived.
It's also (still) available from the publisher for $15, but depending on where you're at, paying freight may wash out the savings.
Enjoy!
It's also (still) available from the publisher for $15, but depending on where you're at, paying freight may wash out the savings.
Enjoy!
Labels: Coach's Midnight Diner, In Print, Writing
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
The Dozenth Door
Today's appearance in the Wittenburg Door's newsletter (Production Begins on Lucado-Inspired Movie) marks my twelfth appearance inside the Insider.
When it was accepted a couple weeks ago it got this response from WDI managing editor Harry Guetzlaff: "I did a spit take on the title."
Get out your screen- and keyboard-protectors. You've been warned. (Otherwise, enjoy!)
When it was accepted a couple weeks ago it got this response from WDI managing editor Harry Guetzlaff: "I did a spit take on the title."
Get out your screen- and keyboard-protectors. You've been warned. (Otherwise, enjoy!)
Labels: In Print, Wittenburg Door, Writing
Saturday, September 22, 2007
How Much Does This Not Suck?
Way back in April I submitted the first 25 pages of my novel manuscript to Genesis, a first-25-pages-of-your-manuscript contest sponsored by the Association of Christian Fiction Writers.
Then in May I got word that I finaled in my category: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Allegory.
Tonight the winners were announced. I took Second Place. (Congrats to Sally Apokedak, the SF/F/A winner.) Two other members of my crit group, Angie Poole and Jennifer Cary, also placed Second in their categories. We got certificates and got to walk across the stage, but we didn't have to make speeches. Second is the new First as far as we're concerned.
Congrats also to fellow Misfit (our crit group is The Misfits) Mich Pendergrass, who has been accepted to next Spring's Pen to Press retreat in New Orleans. And to Heather Goodman who took my author photo (above); it was the highlight of the awards banquet and got a "that's a great photo" comment from Camy Tang, who presented the Genesis Awards.
Then in May I got word that I finaled in my category: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Allegory.
Tonight the winners were announced. I took Second Place. (Congrats to Sally Apokedak, the SF/F/A winner.) Two other members of my crit group, Angie Poole and Jennifer Cary, also placed Second in their categories. We got certificates and got to walk across the stage, but we didn't have to make speeches. Second is the new First as far as we're concerned.Congrats also to fellow Misfit (our crit group is The Misfits) Mich Pendergrass, who has been accepted to next Spring's Pen to Press retreat in New Orleans. And to Heather Goodman who took my author photo (above); it was the highlight of the awards banquet and got a "that's a great photo" comment from Camy Tang, who presented the Genesis Awards.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Wednesday at the Insider
This week at the Wittenburg Door Insider I run amok in the fashion department with a piece about Bapto-Catholic dress codes.
It's nice when you run across several similarly-themed weird news stories and, instead of shaking your head bemoaning the fact it's impossible to top them separately, you make something new by combining them.
Stay tuned for next week, too. If all goes to plan it'll be my first back-to-back-to-back threepeat in the Insider. (Or you could subscribe to the newsletter and not have to rely on the reminders here.)
It's nice when you run across several similarly-themed weird news stories and, instead of shaking your head bemoaning the fact it's impossible to top them separately, you make something new by combining them.
Stay tuned for next week, too. If all goes to plan it'll be my first back-to-back-to-back threepeat in the Insider. (Or you could subscribe to the newsletter and not have to rely on the reminders here.)
Labels: In Print, Wittenburg Door, Writing
