Corium Mag #1

Some big-time talent on this one: Lauren Becker, Greg Gerke and Heather Fowler edit.

The first issue looks world smooth. Happy to have 2 Gymnos there alongside work from these friends and fantastics: Stephen Elliott, Sean Lovelace, Alec Niedenthal, Adam Moorad, Donna Vitucci, Kathy Fish, Beth Thomas, Kim Chinquee, Sheldon Compton, Ryan Ridge, Julie Babcock, Eric Beeny, Andrea Kneeland, Christina Murphy, Laura Ellen Scott, Shaindel Beers, Corey Mesler, Sam Rasnake, Rusty Barnes and Cami Park.

I read the LES short, which rocks. Looking fwd to the rest.

JMWW Spring Issue (All-Flash)

March 15 is looking just as neyesh as March 1. 3/10: makes a good argument for web fiction, if such arguments need to be made any more......

David Erlewine edited this issue, and I'm seriously pumped for it. I've worked w/ some of these writers @ Wigleaf, and I've admired others from afar. The full list: Charles Lennox, Jarrid Deaton, Gary Moshimer, Rusty Barnes, Katrina Gray, Timothy Gager, Seth Fried, Tria Andrews, Damian Dressick, Sheldon Lee Compton, Ethel Rohan, S. Craig Renfroe, Andrew Roe, Kyle Minor, Michael Czyzniejewski, Matt Bell, Edward Mullany, Matthew Salesses, Kevin Wilson, Curtis Smith, Tara Laskowski, Molly Gaudry, Erin Fitzgerald, Meg Pokrass, Roxane Gay, Sam Nam, Robert Swartwood, and Ben Loory.

My story there is called "Supreme" and starts like this: "I ditched the pizza delivery boy's subcompact behind a Quonset hut of corrugated steel and made for the hills, desirous, you could say, of goodness--feeling good--and thinking maybe I had the night's blessing...."

Big thnx to David and Jen Michalski for putting this thing together. By the end of the day, I'll have dented it good......

'Hee hee' and 'Yup'

"...let’s admit that literary fiction is a genre, too, shall we? Expectations guide its readers, that of respect for consensus reality and the poignancy of seemingly ordinary lives..." --Peter Straub @ The Millions.

Chapbook Month

Dan Wickett of Dzanc Books has proposed that March be chapbook month. These three can't be read yet--they're on pre-order--but they must be propped.

1. Chad Simpson's Phantoms.

I read an advance of this and was happy to contribute praise. In addition to those words, I can give these: the collection is so solid. You may read it quickly, but in retrospect, the very short fictions in Phantoms might take on more breadth and solidity than do many of the novels you've read.


2. Nicolle Elizabeth's Threadbare Von Barren, a collection of very short fictions and prose poems.

I published one of Nicolle's early stories in Wigleaf (and have since snagged two more of hers). I remember titling a blog entry about that first one "Nicolle Elizabeth for Prestidigident," and that seems apt. She's an original, a conjurer. Her stories are marvels of life and craft.


3. Matt Bell's Wolf Parts

Matt does as much as anyone does for independent publishing, and his own writing is one of independent publishing's triumphs. I've read his two previous mini-books--How the Broken Lead the Blind, and The Collectors--with admiration, appreciation and real delight. I couldn't be more excited to read his forthcoming full-length collection, How They Were Found, which includes some of the best and most memorable stories I've read in a long time. It's a good bet that Wolf Parts--which is available only for a limited time thru pre-order--is going to deliver.

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Today @ Wigleaf

Tuere T.S. Ganges' "Pray for Danielle"