Ohai, all. Newsies and so on . . . A short story on the way from Joyland. Publication date TBA, but the little asshole's got a miniature replica of Hiroshima in it. Finished first draft of novel. Have started rewriting it. I've started dicking around with screenwriting, something I've always wanted to do, since my favourite things about storytelling - structure and dialogue - are pretty much what screenplays are. I wrote a TV pilot called Spanked! about an underachieving accountant whose live is turned upside down when his new client turns out to be a dominatrix. I work better with deadlines, so I decided to enter it into a contest. The results are in: Spanked! made the quarterfinals, making it one of the top 25 (out of 300+ entries). Great. Encouraging. Begeinner's luck . . . ? Deets: http://www.scriptapaloozatv.com/winners/

Masters Review

The Quarterly is New

I always forget you, little buddy, and maybe soon you'll be left for good, since I'm creeping towards getting a website. Sigh. You'll always have a place in my dark little heart.

Anyway. Updates on the subject of writing . . .

• The current ish of The New Quarterly has two of my stories ("The Perfect Man for My Husband," about a woman whose terminally ill husband comes out of the closet, and "A Perfect Replica of the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel," about a kid whose best friend's dad turns out to be the neighbourhood pedophile), plus a picture of me, plus an Afterword, in it. 
• I wrote this historical short story about the chess playing robot Turk from like the 1900s; the Masters Review selected it for their anthology of emerging American voices (which is weird, because I'm not American).
• I won the Deborah Slosberg Memorial Prize in Poetry, from UMASS Amherst, and this is a funny thing, because I don't really write much poetry.

I think that's everything. Well, it isn't everything, but the OTHER THING that's good news hasn't been announced yet, so I can't tell you what it is, but something has been selected for a kind of something prize that comes once a year, like Santa Claus. 

Ohai, good stuff.

Ohai. Here are some things that have been happening / will happen.

Some goodness in the upcoming Spring issue of The New Quarterly, including my short story, "A Perfect Replica of the Sistine Chapel," and my other short story, "The Perfect Man for My Husband," an afterword, in which I talk about where the stories came from and so on, and an author photo that is neither a selfie nor a picture of me naked.

I've been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, so that's sort of a big deal. I've got three stories up for it.

If you're up in Seattle for AWP, The McNeese Review, which has a story of mine in it (and a story of Richard Bausch!), will be released.

Speaking of releasing, I'll be manning the Juniper Summer Writing Institute table at AWP, so stop by and smell my hair. I'm the assistant director and can answer questions about why I don't have any friends.