How-To instructions for a certain kind of life in World Literature Today.
“Madonna Girls” in MAR
You don’t even know. This issue of Mid-American Review is unforgettable. You don’t even know.
Give Me YA Fiction
Contemporary Young Adult Fiction is a blast. The voices are real and the humor is strong. I don’t remember having this much fun reading novels written for my age when I was in high school. I had to read Flowers in the Attic to get my thrills, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t written for teens. Certainly, there was nothing for teenagers that was this frank, nothing that spoke in the voice of the teen, expressing those thoughts that we only expressed to our friends. Certainly, these wonderful books I’ve been reading these last few weeks would have never made it to press.
Are you thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy? If so, crack open Dumplin’ (hilarious and timeless) or Into the Wild Nerd Yonder (hilarious and relatable) and enjoy what you missed reading when you were sixteen, when it wasn’t aloud, when you had to tell your secrets to your friends and maybe didn’t know that thousands of other kids were feeling just like you.
C’mon. Have some fun.
After the Pie
Thanksgiving Day Two: Such a treat it is to work on my YA novel at home instead of on the ferry and bus. My writing companions, Charlie and Cornelius, anticipate the final version.
You Will See MARS in 2017
In 2017, Ravenna Press will publish my collection of dystopian flash titled, Mars.
The world will crumble, so let’s read about it.
This Piece Was Revenge
This one‘s for you, Orthodox clergy. Oh, yes. Pray for me.
American Short[er] Fiction Finalist
Cheer up, Grumpy Fish: I’m a 2016 American Short[er] Fiction Finalist! Look around, why don’t you. Life is grand.
Clergy Appetites
I could say lots and lots and lots about clergy. I knew some very well, but now I aim to keep a humongous canyon between them and me. However, I couldn’t resist expressing some ideas in a little piece of dark, slipstream flash called “Orthodox Bishops.” Thank you, Body Parts Magazine for accepting it for publication. The story comes out in Issue 6: Grave Robbing.
Enjoy?
In the Middle of It
Editors email me in the late evening, when I’m wiping down the counter, when my son is telling me about superhero motivation in film. I hear the notifications from my phone across the room, but I don’t want to disrupt the engaged teenager before me, who so expertly and devoutly critiques these super-human characters who, to both him and me, are quite real. Still, I need to check my phone.
Excuse me, I say. Just a second, I say.
And just like that, I hug this blossoming film critic because an editor from Mid-American Review is “crazy” about my story and wants to publish it, and is it still available?
Yes! I type. I am so happy, I type because it’s always such a thrill to have created this little make-believe world, a world that others then step into and enjoy enough that they want to offer that experience to others.
Thank you, MAR, for accepting “Madonna Girls.”
It comes out in November.