Wigleaf Top 50 izzup!

So my Wigleaf Top 50 news is complicated:

1) I've got two stories on the long shortlist: "The Brewsters" & "Last Seen Leaving," which appeared in Moon Milk Review and Smokelong, respectively, and are also collected in Curio.

2)Next year I will be on the Top 50 team, along with Ravi Mangla and Greg Gerke, and the new guest ed. (I know who it is, but it doesn't look like Scott has made a formal announcement yet). Being part of the team means that I have been handed a massive list of sites to follow and pick through.

3) Though I didn't make the Top 50 this year, stories I selected for Everyday Genius and helped select for Prick of the Spindle did:

Roxane Gay's "Boys in Drag"

Barry Graham's "13 ways of looking at a roadtrip"

Simon Smith's "Things I've Eaten That I'm Not Proud Of"

Valerie Vogrin's "Apologies"

4) (takes big breath) Plus others I selected/helped select made the long list:

Erin Fitzgerald's "At Grayfield Keep"

Jen Michalski's "The Turn of Things"

John Minichillo's "Working Halloween for Christmas Money"

Cami Park's "When You Heard"

Congratulations everyone--it was a pleasure working with you!

Prick of the Spindle 5.1 is live & my last

The latest issue is live and chock full of features by me, mainly because Cynthia Reeser encouraged me to initiate a lot of projects last winter, and now they've come into being. Check out

My interview with Steve Himmer.

A round up of silly questions for Steve, Matt Bell, Paula Bomer, D. Harlan Wilson, Lee Papa, Ethel Rohan, and Joseph Young.

A review of Joe Young's Name, where I seek assistance with the vampire genre from a 14 year old expert named Maggie.

So with my fingers all over this issue, it probably seems weird for me to announce that this is my last go round with Prick of the Spindle. It has been a wonderful experience, but I'm just not able to manage the reading load, and with other events on the horizon, my head is not in the game.

My sincere thanks to Cynthia, Erin, and Trish--I've learned so much this year, and you all have been terrifically supportive. Congratulations to the incoming fiction team--they're already doing incredible work and are largely responsible for the fine selections that appear in 5.1: Cynthia Hawkins, Peg Alford Pursell, and Sarah Fruchtnicht.

Prick of the Spindle 4.3 is live

Go here for this season's gallery of fun. 4.3 marks my second full issue as Fiction Editor, and I'm getting into the groove now. The biggest challenge had been how to deal with "friend" submissions, but now I'm over that. The sheer volume of subs + having a life makes it impossible to treat every special baby like a special baby, and luckily our reading process leaves plenty of room for me to deny influence.

I did struggle with the reviews I wrote for this issue, and I think it shows. I wasn't crazy about the books, and I kept having to re-define my purpose. I think my deal is to try to reveal enough about the writing that my opinion can be tossed if it gets in the way.

High class AWP off site readings!

Your Thursday and Friday nights are spoken for

Some days are too much

Here's a blurry pic of me at the 510 reading in Baltimore yesterday. Do I look insane enough? The GIANT HEAD in the foreground is one of Timothy Gager's relatives, I believe.

I'm up at 4 this morning, freaking blogging. Yesterday was too full, kicking off with news (not good/not bad) that made it near impossible to focus and enjoy the riches of the day. Here's hoping today brings a bit of perspective. I won't go into detail about the news except to say that I received some amazing notes about my novel, but moving forward means serious revision, and even then the future is iffy. This kind of situation usually energizes the hell out of me, but the wave hasn't struck yet.

Prick of the Spindle 4.2 went live yesterday, and the issue is the first that I have been fully involved in as the newly minted Fiction Editor. For Father's Day, I recommend Carmen Lau's "Taking Care," one of my favorite pieces in the issue. Also, DO NOT MISS Art Taylor's "Mrs. Marple and the Hit-and-Run," a story that does something completely new and lovely with sleuth narrative. In the poetry section, Lucy Jilka has three featured pieces that will knock you flat, and over in interviews I'm talking to Danny Collier about his web poetry project, An Abbreviated Family Dictionary. This issue also marks my official debut as a reviewer. Erin McKnight and I dogpile Michelle Reale's chap, Natural Habitat, with two reviews, and I've also reviewed Jacob Paul's novel Sarah/Sara.

Late in the day we headed off to Baltimore, to the fantastic Minas Gallery for the last 510 reading before summer break. Thank you Jen Michalski for inviting me out to read with Timothy Gager, Bill Black, and Curtis Smith, and I apologize for our group ADHD. I do regret not joining the crowd for dinner after, but my head was swimming with too much weird to do any socializing.

This week's to-do list, plus a time-waster

First week of vacay is over, and now begins week two, in which I have to Get Shit Done. Here are a bunch of to-do items beginning with "-ing" words:

--hoping to craft my review of Jacob Paul's novel, Sarah/Sara, for possible inclusion in the next issue of Prick of the Spindle. It's a fascinating book that builds its themes carefully and finishes with a genuinely nerve-wracking final act. My main anxiety approaching the book is my ignorance of Jewish orthodoxy, but I feel confident I have something to say about how this book deals with youth and tragedy. (the narrator is journaling as she kayaks the Alaskan coast solo after her parents are killed in a cafe bombing in Israel)

--trying to put together an interview/profile thingie to showcase Danny Collier's An Abbreviated Family Dictionary. (Danny will be playing the part of himself in this production)

--finishing up reading fiction submissions for PotS. Only just realized there are leftover subs from the last issue adrift in the transition among processes and editorial staff.

--trimming down the manuscript of my creepy vsf collection Curio, for possible submission to the Black Lawrence chapbook contest.

--buying new Keen sandals. (my feet hurt)

--straightening up spare room--Molly might be camping out with us in early June, and Mom is definitely coming late June. Nephew Jake a possible for mid-summer.

Time waster: put these in order--

buffet pizza
mountain pizza
beach pizza
grocery "deli" pizza

Chapbook done or close to it? & Prick of the Spindle & Dzanc Day

That's what it looks like. For several months now I've been worrying a dark theme to death in the very short form, and what with breakthroughs achieved in the past week, I think I've written all I care to on the subjects of death, eternity, or the lack thereof--for the time being. So what do I have?

A folder called "Curio" containing 26 short stories, 3 of which may get tossed. 7 have been/are scheduled to be published (the final 3 coming out this month, yikes). A few of the pieces are multi-part, so with each part sitting on its own page, I probably have about 50 pages. I know that's damn brief, but I think it's the right length for something like this. Plus I'm all WWSJD? I want people to read it like they might have read Weird Tales comics once upon a time.

Now what? I don't know. But it's a good thing I'm wrapping it up because beginning in April I should start reading submissions for my new gig as Fiction Editor at Prick of the Spindle. I'm stupid-happy-excited to join the PotS staff, and to work for Cynthia Reeser who strikes me as a very sharp, particularly forward thinking artist.

Also want to remind everyone out there that Next Saturday is DZANC DAY, and along with Reb Livingston and the lads from Barrelhouse, I'll be helping conduct workshops as part of DC's "Dzanc National Workshop Day," a fundraising event to support the DZANC's "charitable programs which, in part, bring creative writing programs to students who could not otherwise afford the opportunity." Should be a hoot. I'm doing the flash workshop.