A Pushcart Prize Nomination!

The penguin says it all.  I probably won't win, but it's still lovely, and a first for me.

If you're curious about 'Doll Love', you can read my initial post about it from back when it was published, or just buy it—it's only $8 and I enjoyed the other stories in the issue.  When you order, remember to specify the Summer 2015 issue / volume 36.1.  Or just get a subscription.

Also, Pushcart's 2016 collection came out a few weeks ago, no doubt full of great reads.  Both this and Jabberwock Review are great stocking stuffers, especially for all your cubic, book-shaped stockings.

New Writing! Accept / Decline in Carve Magazine.

Carve Magazine, a beautiful Texan literary journal, is running a feature about me in their latest issue!

The feature is called "Accept/Decline" and it appears regularly in their Premium print editions.  Each edition, they focus on a story they liked but had to reject, which then went on to get published elsewhere.  They highlight the differences, if any, between the draft they read and the final published piece, feature comments from both the rejecting and accepting editing staffs, and run an essay by the story's author about getting the story published.  The essay tells the story of the story.  

In my case, the story is 'Doll Love', which ran recently in issue 36.1 (Summer 2015) of Jabberwock Review.  'Doll Love' not online but you can buy it, or read a little about it in an older blog post.  And my essay in Carve is also print-only, but their fiction is online and free, and the print edition is measly $12 bucks and comes in the mail and has that glorious fresh-from-the-printer new-magazine smell.

Side note—my essay features a photo of me, which I've always liked and which has gotten a wide variety of reactions, from "great photo!" to "you kind of look like a farmer in this" to "were you constipated when this was taken? You look like you were constipated."  If you ever see this photo and wonder who took it, wonder no more: Joe Turic, of Less Gear More Photos.  Joe always insists on taking photos of me, whenever we're hanging out.  I mean, I can't get him to stop.  He's so insistent that I usually pre-empt him and tell him to just take the photos already.  "Just take the damn photos already Joe!  I know you want to!  Go ahead!  Do it now.  No we can't go eat or hang out with our girlfriends or go do whatever it is we planned on doing.  Make sure to get some candids while you're at it!"  To the casual observer, it might look like I'm harassing Joe into taking my pictures, but be not fooled, dear readers.

New Writing! Doll Love.

'Doll Love', a short story of mine, is out now in the new issue of Jabberwock Review, a lovely literary journal from Mississippi!

Becky Hagenston, the journal’s editor, says this story is 'strange, sweet, and utterly hilarious'—she is obviously a woman of exquisite taste (and talent: she just won an O’Henry Prize for a story of her own.)

While you can in theory purchase this journal in a physical book store, I would be gobsmacked to learn of anyone actually managing to find it on a shelf.  You can order the issue, though, from the Review itself, for a mere $8—you'll want to specify Volume 36.1, Summer 2015.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that I alone was not responsible for this story.  In conversation years ago, my dear old friend Hyunmi and I, together, non-sequitured our way to the story's premise.  Hyunmi is an Ivy-League-educated PhD and mother of two, and while I won't share the premise here, I should probably warn you that it involves characters having sexual intercourse with inanimate objects.