lovely words

As one who has been reading constantly for most of my life, I don't often encounter new words anymore. Except, that is, when I read something by Cormac McCarthy. I decided I should start keeping track of my favorites when I, today, encountered two new beauties in the same sentence. Here they are: Coomb (also …

Didn’t read it: The Novelist: A Novel, by Jordan Castro, a noview

Imagine that you wake one morning and at the foot of your bed is a glowing blue portal cut from the air, a shimmering gateway to whoknowswhere, you step blearily and excitedly toward it, it could lead anywhere, anywhen, turn you into anyone, the vibrating, shimmering edges seem to pulse with possibility, this, finally, is …

Best writing year yet?

Today I have had yet another story accepted for publication, that brings the total to 7 this year. To put that in perspective, before this year, the total number of stories that I'd ever had published was 10. What happened? Why this sudden streak? Well, one major key is I'm sending out many more stories, …

the end of a long, dry era

I received an acceptance last night for a novella I wrote in 2019 and 2020. After many years of rejections and uncertainty, it finally has a home. This novella is important to me because it is the first thing I wrote after deciding not to give in to my fears of inadequacy. It is something …

the books i read this year

since i failed to blog about any of the books I read, here they are in reverse chronological order with a little snippet about each of them: The Star by Yukio Mishima A young, sexy actor at the peak of his career, followed everywhere by adoring fans, is carrying on a secret relationship with his …