Still challenged by poetry: Discomfort City

I wrote this poem as a poemed response to myself about tacos. I hope you enjoy. And I hope you live and laugh and love.

Discomfort City

I also wanted to mention that I was heading to Discomfort City recently because, and you won't believe this, I put too much spicy salsa on a taco. Here's the good news, the second taco? I didn't put that much spicy salsa on it. And you know what? I was ok. Imagine! Just like that. One taco sends me to Discomfort City but the second is Joy in a Taco Shell. And that's why I love tacos.

wigleaf longlist and H_NGM_N

Hey, World!

A (very) short story of mine, "The O.K. Grocery Store Corral" from Knee-Jerk Magazine, made the wigleaf top 50 (very) short fiction longlist this year. I think this might be my first ever award of any kind in fiction? That's a really cool thing and I'm happy about it. I wanted to share the fact with all of you.

Also, some poems I wrote were published by poet/editor extraordinaire, Nate Pritts, and the great H_NGM_N this week. Take a gander at those, too, if you like. The issue is jammed full of other poets and all that I admire. You can (and really should) read them there, too.

Why God Why is now on Goodreads, for your information.

I'm reading several books right now but Lindsay Hunter's "Don't Kiss Me" (forthcoming from FSG) and James Tate's "Worshipful Company of Fletchers" are the most rocking of those books rocking my world right now. This is a thing I really want you to know.

George Saunders Now and Forever

So, I don't remember the last time I wrote about George Saunders for any reason in particular. I seem to FIND reasons, generally speaking, even when he's not exactly the central subject matter. I find his story writing so fascinating, though. There's so much to learn from him just by his opening sentences, for example. I'm a firm believer in the first sentence. You gotta write a good one. You gotta write a good story, but a good story can very much start on the wrong foot if the first sentence is bungled. And for my money, nobody writing today does them better than George Saunders.

I'm also interested in the, I think, Hunter S. Thompson system of writing the writing of good writers for yourself, just to get a taste of how it feels to write it. I've handwritten in my weird journal the first sentences of all the stories in Civilwarland in Bad Decline. I'm now going to type them out here. Take a look. See if you see what I mean. Feel free to disagree. Plenty of people do, and often!

"Whenever a potential big investor comes for the tour the first thing I do is take him out to the transplanted Erie Canal Lock."

"The first great act of love I ever witnessed was  Split Lip bathing his handicapped daughter."

"Halfway up the mountain it's the Center for Wayward Nuns, full of sisters and other religious personnel who've become doubtful."

"At noon another load of raccoons comes in and Claude takes them out back of the office and executes them."

"Elizabeth always thought the fake stream running through our complex was tacky."

"My first and favorite task of the day is slaving over the Iliana Evermore Fairy Castle."

"Tonight at last the nation votes."

New Things and Other Things

WHAT A WEEK!

Great times at the Poetry Made of Diamonds Reading, and many thanks to Russ Woods for having me read! That was Sunday night.

Then on Friday, Corium's winter issue was published. I had a short piece entitled "Spare Change" featured in it. Congrats to Lauren Becker for a job well done and on her story collection forthcoming from Curbside Splendor.

Before that, Thursday, I had some poems go up on Alice Blue Review, along with other great peoples. I love Alice Blue Review. AWESOME!

And on Wednesday, I had a bunch of stories that'll be in Why God Why -- my collection soon to exist because of Love Symbol Press -- in the very last and very awesome issue of Red Lightbulbs. See it here.

Oh! And Requited came out today, to top everything off! Requited 8! And I have two short pieces in it. And one of them I made an illustration for. And that illustration is this; it's from "The Pushing." It's a tale of pushing and other things. 

Oh, and I have a story on the recommended page on Fictionaut. You can check that out here.

THE NEXT BIG THING

Russ Woods, this is an infernal game of tag you've tagged me in, requiring a person to tag it perpetually forward and the like. But I am a good sport, and I will play. I've got something, a recent project, I'd like to say somethings about anyway. (That's how this works for the uninitiated: it's a meme floating around presently wherein you talk about something you've been writing or have recently written.) Here's mine:

WHAT IS THE WORKING TITLE OF THE BOOK?

Paltry Little Circumstances

WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM FOR THE BOOK?

Lots of things, Nietzsche for one (got the title from an aphorism of his in Human, All Too Human). Likewise, experiences I was having with my own mental health and other coming-of-age type stuff of my early twenties. Also, a good bit of it deals with my frustration at working as a temp for a major Chicago area bank, MB Financial. Not that I consider MB particularly bad by itself, only inasmuch as it's a microcosm of the wider system of  corporate culture. And really, kind of like David Foster Wallace hits on in a number of different ways in  The Pale King, I was more struck by the tedium of the work I did, and the monotony of the corporate day-to-day. You had to find ways to escape boredom or analyze your boredom intensely. I found myself doing both at various intervals.

WHAT GENRE DOES YOUR BOOK FALL UNDER?

I'm trying to do something humorous with this story. I'm comfortable with the idea that it would be considered a humor novel with serious elements / themes, or not.

WHAT ACTORS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY THE PART OF YOUR CHARACTERS IN A MOVIE RENDITION?

EEErgh. I dunno. Daniel Day-Lewis as every character, maybe?

WHAT IS THE ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK?

The story of a man, his guardian angel, and the man's cat.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE MANUSCRIPT?

A little over a year.

WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK?

As I alluded earlier, it came about sort of organically. Weird developments in my life and my mental health made me want to ruminate a little less and maybe project some of what I was feeling on the outside world. A dysfunctional guardian angel, friends and family who mean well, a cat that could somehow solve everything, and the forces that be, that be pretty constantly.

WHAT ELSE ABOUT YOUR BOOK MIGHT PIQUE THE READER’S INTEREST?

There are a lot of fight scenes? I really wanted to have a superhero/action star quality to the action and the protagonist, Herman Wellesby.

WILL YOUR BOOK BE SELF-PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY?

I like to think someone will find it interesting enough to pick it up for publication, but I'm very amenable to the idea of self-publishing. Why the heck not, eh?

WHAT WRITERS YOU HAVE TAGGED FOR NEXT WEEK:

Thomas Simmons
Mason Johnson
Josh Denslow
Faith Gardner
Alexander J. Allison
Matthew Burnside

Red Lightbulbs 9.5 -- Secret Santa Issue

Well, the 9 and a half issue of Red Lightbulbs is out (The Secret Santa issue). The penultimate issue. I'll be sad to see Red Lightbulbs go the way of the dinosaur and the Zima, although more notably as the former than the latter. It's a sad thing! But I know Russ is moving on to bigger and better things. I know the same is true of Meghan. I know that this is how these things go.

Issue 10 is shaping up to be amazing. This makes me glad.

Credit Theron Jacobs for the cover art:

Artifice 5! Artifice 5! Artifice 5!

Artifice 5 is coming folks. I wanted to trumpet its doing so here. You can snag a copy in advance of its March 2013 release date (or more accurately, you can secure the issue before its March 2013 release date, receiving it via mail or what have you in March(ish)). This is what I'm thinking. Great contributors! Thrilled to be a part of this, working with a phenomenal writer and editor in James Tadd Adcox. Check it here.