Another Ride with the Whistling Shade

I learned just today that the Minneapolis-based magazine Whistling Shade has accepted my story "Haunted" for publication in their Spring 2008 issue.

This is the third story they've taken of mine, and I'm happy to place another one with them. They put out a quality magazine, and they have a distribution of 2,500 copies.

They'd be a good one to subscribe to . . . but you knew I was going to say that.

Another (little) milestone

Ken Meisel (please pronounce it with an Irish brogue) and I had a great time reading at The Book Cellar in Plymouth. That place looks like a town on the grow; it felt very alive and vibrant. His sister, Kathleen, hosted an excellent afterglow party following the reading, which was by far the highlight of the evening (despite my two-minute confessions and Ken's mother's scandalous consumption of all the almonds).

During the night, my novel, Into the Desperate Country, hit another little milestone. It has now sold 325 copies. (you'll hear from me again when I reach 350) I probably won't reach my goal of 500 by June, but I think I can do at least 400.

On that note, I also sold 5 copies of my latest collection of poetry, Poems New, Used, and Rebuilds.

A Phone Call No Less

The editor of the Spoon River Poetry Review called my office today to let me know that he was accepting one of my poems for their next issue.

Just for the record, I'm all in favor of getting more phone calls like that.

A Writer to Watch

While I was up in Marquette helping my mother with yardwork, I went to Snowbound Books, and while I was there I picked up And Stother Ories by Rex Ton Vonathan. It's a pretty wild collection -- with individual stories having been published in McSweeneys, The New Yorker, Big Debut Review, Fair Enough, and Black Warrior Review. I get the sense that he's the next big thing in experimentation. One of his stories is just the word "the" typed out five thousand times. If you actually take the time to read it, it becomes like a heartbeat, and isn't the word "the" the hearbeat of most stories -- the uncelebrated heartbeat that the story needs to live? The story is a celebration of the word "the". Pretty cool.

Here's a blurb from the back cover . . .

Rex Ton Vonathan's And Stother Ories is a stundazzling first, initial debut in what will be a crackling long career. His sentences move like words across a page that start with a capital letter, dance an eye-slicing stylistic tango, and end with a small dot that feels like something more than a period when it ends one of his masterfully-fantilious sentences. His images are rich in lusciousnessness, and he is on the cutting edge of what is new in the story. Reading his stories, you will feel like God is in the room -- and, when you look up, you'll see that the big guy can't help but read over your shoulder. Masterful. Fantastic. Super duper good.
-- Johnny Swift, author of L.A. is Just AL Backwards and My Dad Al -- Not My Pal.

Writer Coming to Delta College

On Tuesday, November 13th, short fiction writer, poet, essayist, and publisher of Bottom Dog Press, Larry Smith, will give a reading at Delta College. He will read at 10:45 in the morning in room F010. He will follow his reading with a talk and Q&A about small presses.

I hope to see some of you there.