If I blogged more often, then I wouldn't need to do these long catch up posts...

So long time no update and I’ve been a bad, bad blogger.

But much has been afoot in the sea beneath the blog, the current under the silence. For instance:

• Several chapbooks are nearly ready for submission. One may have enough momentum to become a full-length manuscript, depending on my attention span.
• Two prose poems from one of the aforementioned chapbooks (tentatively titled The Alter Ego Handbook) were published in 2014 at burntdistrict. burntdistrict is a journal of contemporary poetry published by the editors of Spark Wheel Press. This is the 3rd time I’ve had work published by the journal, and Volume 3, Issue 2 is awesome – and I’m not saying that because my two trivial poems are in there. It’s truly a great read.
• Three poems were finalists for 2014 Atlantis Award at the poet’s billow. You can read them here. No money, but it was great to be in the running for the award and to have my writing published on the poet’s billow website. Thanks to all involved with this award.
• My poem Only the Moon Knows You’re Signing the Blues won first place in the 2014 Lebanon Poets’ Society Free Verse Poetry Contest.
• I have many short stories in various states of construction. I’ll be finishing and revising them soon to get them ready for submittal. I have caught the fiction bug again. Who knows, maybe a novel is rattling inside of me?
• I haven’t given up on my poetry manuscript The Blues Almanac. But I’m no longer letting that book not being published (yet) subliminally cause me to be creatively constipated. I’m partway into writing what will be my next poetry book, although the concept hasn’t fully bloomed yet. I’m looking forward to seeing where 2015 takes this potential book and the rest of my writing.

Broken record, but I’m going to be better at blogging and updates in the new year. If anything, it is another extension of my writing…and I definitely need the practice.

Happy New Year!

Forthcoming.

Great news, another poem has found a loving home.

I will have a prose poem published in an upcoming edition of The Broken Plate, a national literary magazine produced by Ball State University undergraduates each spring. The magazine features poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, book reviews and interviews. The poem is called The Algorithm of Desire. This will be my second engagement with The Broken Plate; they were kind enough to publish my poem Instructions in 2010. 

Huge thanks to Jeremy Flick & the other staff at The Broken Plate for giving me a chance to contribute.

Upcoming.

I will have a prose poem published in an upcoming edition of Ayris Magazine, a magazine of literature and art accepting work from everywhere and edited by the students at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.

The poem is called Migraine, and it is part of my manuscript, The Blues Almanac, which still needs a publisher, by the way (hint hint hint).

Huge thanks to Jenn Monroe & the staff of Ayris for thinking my work good enough.

It’s been awhile since I posted, or 5 things that I want you to know

(1) My poem Excerpts from the Guide to Modern Survival has gathered some praise. It was a runner-up in the 2010 Princemere Poetry Contest, and earned honorable mention in the 9^th Annual Saturday Writers One Page Poem Contest. I appreciate the love.

(2) My flash fiction piece Hush and poems Waning and Life is a Series of One-Hit Wonders will appear in Talking Stick 20. The Talking Stickis a Minnesotan collaboration of poetry, creative nonfiction and fiction, and is a publication of the nonprofit organization, The Jackpine Writers' Bloc. You can go to their website to find out more about how the Talking Stick started and what the group does. In addition, Hush received an honorable mention nod amongst the fiction entries this year, and Waning earned first place honors in poetry. I am flattered by all this; big thanks to the judges and editors.

(3) So far my full-length poetry manuscript, The Blues Almanac, has been rejected by no less than twenty publishers. I am hopeful though. This is a good book & I believe in it.

(4) I wrote two prose poems last week, and created some random scribbled thoughts this week. I think my writer’s block might be over. My work rate was almost nil since mid-January, so my creative side was struggling. Glad to be back on the horse.

(5) The weather in Minnesota stinks, except for today, but I am working too hard at the day job to enjoy the rare occurrence of sunshine outside. My inner Florida Evans is screaming, “Damn, damn, damn.”

Forthcoming.

I’ll have a prose poem published in Clare Literary Magazine, a journal published by the students and faculty of Cardinal Stritch University. The poem is called The Inherent Discontent of Objects, and it is part of my completed manusctipt, The Blues Almanac, which still needs a publisher, by the way (hint hint hint). Huge huge thanks to Abby Gambrel & the staff of Clare for thinking my work good enough.

Quick Update.

Can’t knock my hustle.

The Tidal Basin Review will publish my poems The Blues Almanac and Education in an upcoming edition.

My micro-fiction piece Anniversary recently appeared in One Forty Fiction.  Click here to read it, and leave a critique there if you feel compelled to do so.

Finally, the online journal A Handful of Dust will publish my poem Hello, My Name Is sometime in the future.

Things are looking up.



Finalist.

Just found out that my poetry manuscript The Blues Almanac was a finalist in the first-ever Smalls Book Poetry Book Contest.  Although it didn't win and it won't get published (yet), it feels good to know my manuscript was able to hang around until the end of the competition - it is an honor.  Thanks to judge Gerry LaFemina and to senior editor George Guida for the opportunity to compete.