U5

The arrival of this has pre-empted all other reading.

It's, like, really good. Really.

It's not quite as long as the last one. I'm on page 100 or so, and I'm more aware this time: the pleasure is going to run out.

My story in it, "Dermatographism," is right now one of my own favorites of mine. One reason--and I was saying this to fellow contributor/rising star Luke Goebel the other day: I like the end of it more than the beginning. (Usually I like my beginnings the best.)

Another Swell Pre-Order

This one, from Jaded Ibis, is going to be an amazing thing.

To finish an somebody's unfinished story--this would imply a hand-off, would imply, as a result, a story of halves, with a visible seam.

But you won't find one, a seam. Lily Hoang took my start--a story I'd called "Eight Ball"--and exploded it from the inside, put new stuff in the air. So then finishing it--this seemed, to both of us, more possible.

Can't wait to read the whole book, which includes Lily's 'finishings' of stories by Kate Bernheimer, Blake Butler, Beth Couture, Debra Di Blasi, Justin Dobbs, Trevor Dodge, Zach Dodson, Brian Evenson, Carol Guess, Elizabeth Hildreth, John Madera, Ryan Manning, Michael Martone, Kelcey Parker, Ted Pelton, Kathleen Rooney, Davis Schneiderman, Michael Stewart, and J.A. Tyler.

One Swell Pre-Order

{C.}, an MLP Stamp Stories Anthology, can be got as part of this year's MLP subscription --which, at $40, is a great deal (full length works by Norman Lock, Michael Stewart and Mathias Svalina, plus a bunch of handmade chapbooks, by Kristina Marie Darling, Andrew Borgstrom and others).

Or it can be ordered alone.

Here's the idea: people write stories of fifty words or less, and these stories are then formatted into stamp-sized texts and printed on small cards (they're titleless but carry the author's name). Next--my favorite part--the cards go out to independent presses which are participating in the project by slipping them into the pages of direct orders like bookmarks. I've read a couple of them in this way (most recently one by Gregory Sherl which was in a copy of Sam Pink's great Ambulance book from Cow Heavy). And I've heard from a couple of people who've read mine (it's going out w/ issues of The Cupboard). Am itching to read the full deal, which includes--man i don't even know what to say about this list..... I'll just make sounds.... mah mah mah....

"Dog" in NANO Fiction

Been eating this issue up--great stuff by Nin Andrews, Matt Bell, Chas Carey, Doug Paul Case, Sarah Eaton, Erika Eckart, Luke Geddes, Greg Gerke, Nathan Good, Anya Groner, Andrew Kozma, Daniel Lawless, Charles Lennox, Sara Lippmann, Kirsty Logan, Sean Lovelace, Sarah McCartt-Jackson, Shawn Andrew Mitchell, Cheyenne Nimes, Laurie Nye, Carrie Oeding, Michael Palmer, Hannah Pass, Marie Potoczny, Matt Prater, Jim Ruland, Nick Sansone, Kathryn Scanlan, Gregory Sherl, Katie Jean Shinkle, Justin Sirois, Eugenia Tsutsumi, and Desmond Kon.

See lots of Wigleaf contributors there. Could count them but that would require numbers.

Thnx to Glenn Shaheen and the NANO F crew. Is the girl's foot being atomized by spinning blades in the cover art? Sort of disturbing.

"Silt" up on HTML Giant's LMC thing

One of the two from the NY Tyrant -- pdf w/ take by Robb Todd (who wrote that Halloween story that was in 3:AM last yr--pretty swell if you missed it).

One of the quoted words is wrong, which makes me hope that he wrote it from memory because if he did, that would be, you know, great.

Thnx to Robb and also Tim Horvath, who thinks in the comments some typically smart things.....

Afterthought: about the title, which Robb was wondering about. I had it sitting on the table, like. When I finished. It seemed--I'm not sure why--to work. And nobody called me on it -- of the people who read it right off.......

Short @ JMWW

In the fall issue--flash section, John Madera's first full quarter editing that.

Odd title: "On the Bifurcation of Garments for Men."

Thnx to John and Ed. in Chief Jen Michalski. There's a great intro by John and other vsf by Alexandra Chasin, James Hannahan, Tim Horvath, Kevin Kilian, Miguel Morales, David Peak, Davis Schneiderman, Ken Sparling and Terese Svoboda.

story up @ New Ohio Review

It's called the "The Fake I.D." and it's up as a teaser for the fall issue, which is just out.

My other one there, not web accessible, was written at about the same time: "Is That You, John Wayne?" Have to thank outgoing editor Jill Allyn Rosser and the /nor staff for their input on that one: they asked me a fairly simple question about the ending, which helped me get it right finally.

Haven't read any of the issue yet, but I'm looking at the names--Campbell McGrath, Karen Brown, Phong Nguyen, Stephen Dunn.... It's next in line. (I may start w/ the last section, "Altered Views: Fiction Reconsidered," where writers discuss "works of fiction about which they [have] changed their minds over the years." Charles Baxter writes on Paula Fox, Julianna Baggott on Garcia Marquez, Peter Ho Davies on D. Barthelme.... Looks pretty great.....)

One other thing, relevant to the only people likely to be reading this: they've just started taking online subs, /nor has.