The Good Work and the Good People

It’s been a busy time, and I’m glad for it. Since my short story collection, The Same Terrible Storm, went up for pre-order at Foxhead Books I’ve seen several good folks get on board for a copy. Couldn’t be more appreciative and excited all at the same time.

Also, I’ve had some luck getting readings booked, though I had to reset my trip to New York City to be part of Sara Lippman’s Sunday Salon lineup along with some cool people due to work-related issues. In addition, local bookstores have asked me to do book signings when hard copies of the collection arrive, so I can’t ask for more on that front. Advance thanks is also due to Crystal Wilkinson, owner of Lexington’s Wild Fig Bookstore and author of Blackberries, Blackberries, among other titles, for agreeing to have me visit for a reading and book signing there at some point this spring.

And the indie lit community has been amazing as far as talking with me about the collection. This has included interviews so far with Robert Vaughn for the Lit Pub and with Meg Tuite for fwriction:review, as well as a short piece on process for Necessary Fiction’s upcoming new section called “Research Notes”. All this and more, not to mention the basic buzz that has come from so many fine writers and friends spreading the good word about TSTS, as well as a story from the collection, “Blueprint”, published just today at Metazen. All you folks rock.

I learned this week that administrators with the University of Pikeville will be having me as the visiting writer during their homecoming festivities in October, which is also an honor and something I’m greatly looking forward to, especially since they are actually going to pay me a stipend for doing something I would have done for free.

So it’s been busy on the public front in the last month or so, and I’m still working daily on my novel, Brown Bottle. I hope to have this book finished in time to submit a manuscript to Foxhead soon after my second story collection, Where Alligators Sleeps, is brought into the light of day. However, I’m also working half a day each day on expanding Alligators. My goal is to double the number of stories of the manuscript I submitted to Stephen Marlowe at Foxhead this past fall.

Wish me luck, good people, and thanks again to everyone.