• Creepy, Beautiful Things

    Creepy, Beautiful Things

    By now, we’ve all seen the incredible spider web video footage and photography coming out of Australia. If you haven’t, you can look at it here and then come back. I’ll wait. Severe flooding drove millions of spiders inland. Perhaps you remember earlier this year when news footage of spiders fleeing up trees and poles…

  • Mare of Easttown: A Detective’s Defining Case

    Mare of Easttown: A Detective’s Defining Case

    Like everyone else this weekend, I was watching the finale to the limited series Mare of Easttown. Having worshipped Kate Winslet from Heavenly Creatures onward, and seeing how much crime fiction/film/shows I consume, Mare feels like it was created just for me. I started watching seven weeks ago (Who releases a show one week at…

  • “The Demon in the Gray Suit” Published

    “The Demon in the Gray Suit” Published

    Yay! It’s publication day for my newest short story “The Demon in the Gray Suit.” I’m very excited for you to read it. This story came from a mash-up of inspirations, including Dante’s Inferno, the structure of Anton Chekov’s “The Huntsman,” and a dash of The Good Place’s sense of humor (with a focus on…

  • The Joy of Books in Boxes

    The Joy of Books in Boxes

    When I was in middle school, my mother subscribed to a Harlequin Romance book club. Every month, four new mass market titles would arrive in a plain cardboard box. And, even though the books were for my mom, she graciously allowed me to open that box every month. I got to be the first person…

  • The Rejection Collection

    The Rejection Collection

    My most recent short story rejection was a “personal” one. The one before that was a form rejection. As were the three before that. I am making progress on my rejection goal. 100 rejections for 2021. Why aim for so many rejections? Am I a masochist? Do I enjoy making myself feel bad? Do I…

  • The 5 Books on My Desk

    The 5 Books on My Desk

    I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes…writing is hard. Today I struggled. And I did not accomplish much. (The kitchen is clean. There’s that. It counts.) To help combat the doldrums I keep five writing books within reach of my desk. I thought that if anyone else was struggling — especially in the middle…

  • Interesting Things Found in My Neighborhood

    Interesting Things Found in My Neighborhood

  • 2 Things I Learned About History’s Role in Writing from Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

    All right, because I’m a nerd like that, I insisted on reading Lovecraft Country before watching the show. I’m only a couple episodes in – so no spoilers! Here are a couple things I learned reading the novel: Acknowledge Your Literary Tradition…and Critique It. Art is not made in a vacuum. Every piece of writing…

  • I Am Allowed To Sleep

    Growing up, my mom was very consistent with my bedtime ritual: bath, book, bed. Bath — warm water, bubbles. By seven or eight months old, this first step was so necessary that my dad, left alone with me for an evening, had to call my mom away from a coffee (a military-wives get-together) because I…

  • 3 Things I Learned About Making Art from James Ijames’s White

    Covid-19 has taken a lot of things from us. Like the ability to breathe without a piece of cloth in front of our faces. And the chance to meet up with a group of friends without strategic planning. And the opportunity to head to school and be bored in a classroom rather than be bored…

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