My second "I Want to Be Like...." poem published at Sip Cup

Alban Fischer published my poem "I Want to Be Like Flannery" in Issue 8 of Sip Cup earlier this week. The poem follows the publication of the first in this planned series "I Want to Be Like Shirley," which Cody Sexton published in his journal A Thin Slice of Anxiety in March. 

I just finished another today called "I Want to Be Like Mark." The next will be "I Want to Be Like Italo." These are so much fun.

Thanks again, Alban, for being generally awesome.

"It Was a Sword Made of Light" published today at Sledgehammer Lit

Sledgehammer Lit was awesome and published a poem of mine today. It's called "It Was a Sword Made of Light" and was rejected a bunch of times before they saw what I was trying to do with it all along. I'm always so grateful when a journal finally gets it. Go HERE and see if you agree.

"Tooling Up" published at CJ Press today, preview story from upcoming Collected Stories

So I've been talking a lot lately about Cowboy Jamboree Press publishing my Collected Stories this fall. I'm going to be talking about it a lot, just so you know. Today, though, I'm cranking it up. CJ Press General Adam Van Winkle published a new story of mine today called "Tooling Up" at CJ's website. It's one of a batch of new pieces that will be included in the Collected Stories. I want you to go read it. Flat out. No wiggling around it. I want you to go read it. Thank you.

"Shimmer" published at Nauseated Drive

I submitted a short story called "Shimmer" to a short story contest that ended a couple weeks ago. Soon after learning that I didn't win, I started sending the story out to other journals. It's what we do, writers. We keep sending. 

And it was a good thing that I did. The journal Nauseated Drive published the story last week. You can find it HERE. I hope you read it. It's one of my favorites.

Prose poetry published today at Live Nude Poems

My prose poem "A Nostalgia" appeared today at Rusty Barnes's journal Live Nude Poems. Rusty has been reading my submitted work for more than a decade now. 

Rusty published one of my first stories back then at his journal Fried Chicken and Coffee but, more than anything, he's always been straight with me. When I was submitting to Night Train (the renown publication Rusty founded, edited, and made into a stellar journal) he gave me the best rejections. The one I remember most was a short and perfect: "Not this one." 

I've always loved that rejection. I've even used it myself more than a few times over the years with journals I started and edited. It was straight forward, no bullshit, but it also reserved just a little bit of encouragement. Not this one? Well he must be okay if I send another. Maybe that'll be the one. 

Some poetry published today at Call Me [Brackets]

Two of my prose poems  - "A Bad Wreck" and "Triumph of the Young Man Against a Pagan God" - were published today at Call Me [Brackets]. They can be found in the issue on pages 70 - 73, along with some really really fantastic artwork. Have a look and see what you think.

Call Me [Progress] (callmebrackets.net)

New work appearing today in FEED

My piece "After a Period of Heavy Rains and Thaw" is included in FEED's new issue today. There's some other pieces in there too from some talented authors. I'm grateful to editors Jessica Spruill and Allison Pugh for seeing something they liked enough to share with their readers.