"There Are No Carriages or Footmen in the Suburbs"

Heya! I have to say, I like this possible trend of being able to announce stories getting published at the start of the year.

I've known that this story was going to be featured on Black Denim Lit for some time; now I'm very happy to get to share it with you. It features Death moving into a suburban duplex, so I hope you enjoy it!

Click this link to read "There Are No Carriages or Footmen in the Suburbs"

2015 in Notes

When you work on writing stories, it's hard to show people what you're working on via social media or a website because, oops, putting stuff online usually counts as publishing it in the eyes of magazine editors that prefer to be the first publishers.

But held up between my fingers is 2015 in my notebook. This is where most of my Saturday and Sunday mornings or afternoons went after I got my shit back together in the spring; this is my year in review, heh. For a lot of these stories, this is closest they'll get to being seen, because the work was just practice or wasn't good enough. Others have been read aloud or will be read aloud. And some of those I hope to collect with other ones in a pretty package later this year.

I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone else interested in the moderately insane craft of writing, and I'm certainly not saying I'm harder working. Just that I tried, and I hope to try some more, and I'm out here, and thank you.

Every Day I'm Tumblin'

That's not true at all.

However, I have been trying to use Tumblr more. I've started a blog there with the main goal of finding stories, poems, and similar bits of creative writing that I really like from other Tumblr users. I reblog 'em as I find 'em (which, again, is only every few days), because every good writer can use support and appreciation, no matter how small the show.

So come join me on my Tumblr, Reading Under the Night Light, if you're interested!

Thoughts on Being a Writer

Here's the thing:

I think that anyone can be a writer, but that not everyone who has ideas and can assemble coherent sentences is a writer.

Good creative writing involves choosing just the right word for the moment, along with paying attention to the ways words and sentences come together and the effects that, together, they create.

In short, writing is a craft. That means that it's hard work, and a good portion of the time, it'll make you want to set yourself on fire and jump into a pool of gasoline.

But if you're a writer, you won't want to spend your time any other way.