Another weird week, yeah

Most of the week has been slow-no sales, but I've been feeling the love. Three people close to me are in mid-read of Death Wishing, and they chose to gush at me about it yesterday, which, along with the posting of my Recommended Reading list at Ravi Mangla's excellent site, took the edge off my anxiety about the unexplained delay in launching the free Kindle version.

And then there is/was today. Death Wishing is FREE for the time being, which is a huge relief. Right now I'm number 6 in in free kindle amazon lit fic. Gotta love those algorithms.

Tomorrow, Baltimore, and the excellent 5ten Reading series.

Ravi Mangla's Visiting Writers & Uncanny Valley

Very excited by the news that Ravi's Visiting Writers series is slated for serialization by the great folks at Uncanny Valley. Back in March 2010, I was guest ed for Everyday Genius, and I launched my month with five pieces from the series because it was so special.

Ravi's one of my favorite writers, and I've just decided to put him on the syllabus.

Listed! (long short this time)

One of the best things about the Wigleaf Top 50 is that it comes at a time of year when I'm usually on vacation, so I never expect it. I'm so thrilled to have made this year's Long Shortlist with "The Temple Dog," a story that Adam Robinson took for Everyday Genius. BTW, 5 of the top 50 came from EG. Thanks Scott, Ravi, and Adam. No one works harder for the art.

This year's Top 50 is stellar, take your breath way stuff.

March 1-5 Everyday Genius line-up

Monday through Friday at Everyday Genius

Monday

I watched Thomas Pynchon lather himself with cologne samples from magazine ads

from Ravi Mangla’s “Visiting Writers”

Tuesday

Attention now count the damns/ Of remonstration the damn

from David Kaufmann’s “You’ll Poke Your Eye Out”

Wednesday

She developed a dappled scarlet rash and used it as a passport

from Kathryn Scanlan’s “Victorian Wedding Portrait”

Thursday

a book you will never write can only be read by people fluent in the English language

from Jimmy Chen’s “Potential Prologue”

Friday

I thought about stalking her children. Finding her daughter and learning of her dreams

from Barry Graham’s “13 Ways of Looking at a Road Trip”

shirts vs skins

Just posted Ravi Mangla's note, and after I post Barry Graham's entry to the vsf blog this weekend, I think the count will be 11 1/2 men to 6 women (counting joe young as 1 and 1/2 given his double appearance so far). This is meaningless, but I'm trying to goad those women whom I've already invited into action.

I'm more interested in the difference between the invitees who have made a priority of tending to their lives vs. those who are all too happy to drop everything to write for my blog.

"Suspicious person on Finch Drive"

. . . would be a great title for a story, but I can't be arsing arsed to write it. You can have it if you want. Comes from the Sheriff's report as printed in the Morgan Messenger, a genuine independent small town newspaper that comes out of the lovely spa and antique tourist destination of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Our cabin is the next "town" over, in Great Cacapon. One of the things about this newspaper that makes it so great is that the letters to the editor section shows a real community discussion, whether it be about health care, zoning, or anti-chaining legislation. You can't get the letters online, but you can get a taste of an uneasy pastoral by monitoring the editorials and police reports: drugs, uttering, lock-outs, and roaming livestock.

Too many great things to read out there, especially over the past few days. I haven''t even scratched the surface, but already I recommend Ravi Mangla's "Arrgh Luxury Cruises: An Authentic Pirate Adventure" from the current Storyglossia. Like Berkely Springs, Ravi's story is all about the dangerous romance of nostalgia.