stop making sense

it was a long time ago that the talking heads hit it big. man, their music was EVERYWHERE. in the summer of 1983, i ran a lakeside campground in my small town with my brother, and it was hard hard hard work, but it was fun. i remember a group from a nearby town rented … Read more

summertime

working, working, working. it’s going well, and i don’t want to jinx it, but this screenplay is really taking shape, you know? FYI i’m prepping for the next screenwriting course (#3) in September, and have act 2 prepped for it. wish me luck. PS imaginary readers, i did it. 59 pages.

supercut

inspiration comes in many forms, including contemporary music for a story set in 1920s. huh.

2022 (a review)

dear imaginary readers of this blog, another year. i moved into my own house this year and it’s been busy getting settled, but it feels good, you know? it’s peaceful. anyway, my office is cosy and i’ve got a serious shelving shortage to attend to in the new year, but that’s definitely fixable. and i’m … Read more

top 10 short stories (2022)

okay, top 10 list of what i consider, in my limited opinion, the best short stories i’ve read to date.  when i say best i mean memorable.  on this particular day, in this particular year, and in no particular order. “Emergency” by Denis Johnson “So Late in the Day” by Claire Keegan anything by Tessa … Read more

a publication

i have a story upcoming in TNQ. it’s called “the paradise motel” and it’s about a teenaged girl named Marty who works in a cleaning crew at, you guessed it, the paradise motel. i’m slowly building a MS of linked shorts about teenaged girls that’s set in the 70s. i’m trying to give my stories … Read more

2022 is a fucking mess

this year, for a variety of reasons, i’ve limped along rewriting my MS, and i’ve taken to writing out prompts. recently, i wrote a good one and i share it with you here, my imaginary readers of this blog, because it was fun. i’m currently writing it out into a short story, also fun. god … Read more

2021

dear imaginary readers of this blog. well, here we are. surviving. i wrote this year, in fits and starts, and have new pages to show for it. for fun, i started a mystery novel in november (my own version of nanowrimo) and threw 11, 000 words onto the page. it felt great, TBH. there are … Read more

rewriting

dear imaginary readers of this blog, currently, i’m handwriting a second draft of a novel and it’s slow, but it’s moving along in a forward motion. i’m fleshing out scenes and adding the internal dialogue of the MC, which is fruitful and good work, but it’s slow. sometimes it takes an hour to really nail … Read more

top book of 2020

normally i write a blog post about the best books i read in the year prior. it’s a tradition. this year, i acknowledge that i read a fair amount in 2020 and it was so hard to do, with the pandemic and resultant anxiety, and the creeping sadness of isolation. but i managed to read … Read more