I was in the middle of an essay about Lizzie Halliday when I saw a call from the Australian publisher PURE SLUSH BOOKS for poems and flash for an upcoming anthology to be called 100 LIVES. Of course I couldn't resist a fictionalized monologue of the first woman to be sentenced to the electric chair in the U.S., an Irish-American arsonist and serial killer who instead lived out her days at the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.  I'd forgotten all about it until my virtual copy arrived today. 

Here's a taste:  “There are those who say I’ll burn in hellfire for my sins, but I set my own fires, thank you.”

Sometimes a flash starts with a character’s voice, like “Gall,” which came out of nowhere but was inspired by a prompt at Kathy Fish’s Fast Flash Reunion. Thanks to Scott Neuffer at TRAMPSET for publishing “Gall,” and thanks, Kathy Fish and fellow Fast Flashers! 

I've had some good news in the past week or so. A micro was accepted at TRAMPSET, a relatively new zine that's published a lot of really great writers. It's one of my voice-driven monologues, coming out next week. And another micro was accepted at ETHEL, which I found because the teacher of the "speculative fiction" class at CREATIVE NONFICTION is co-editor. The micro, a lyric riff on Vivienne Eliot, is part of THE LUNATICS' BALL. Their next issue will be in January; they post online, but it's a hand-made print magazine, which sounds really cool. 

​But here's the real good news.

I don't have my copy yet, but the cover is posted online, and one of the contributors got hers. A dream come true, finally having an essay in FOURTH GENRE. Here's the cover. I'll be watching the mail.

I have a tiny micro out in DREAM JOURNAL today. Shawn Berman accepted "End Times" in seven minutes flat (I've had other same-day acceptances, but I think this was a record). 

It's a really big honor. I've gotten Notables in the past (this is my sixth) but I didn't have a long essay this year and they don't often feature flash. I've preordered BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2020 from my indie bookseller, as I do every year, but it won't be out until early November.

This morning I got up late after a night of insomnia and found a DM on twitter from Genia Blum in Switzerland saying I was on the list for my short segmented lyric essay "Visitations" in GHOST PROPOSAL. It's 1100 words, somewhat fractured and oblique. I never expected this in a million years. Then I got a DM on twitter a couple of minutes later from Nuala O'Connor in Ireland congratulating me. Then I actually got onto twitter and saw that Paul Crenshaw had noticed my name and J.T. Hill's (as well as his own) on the list, and it was a lovely way to learn about it. There's a partial preview of BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2020 with most of the Notable list on Google Books (in German, because Genia sent it to me), but I should have the book in my hands in a week or two.

​I'm floored.

Of course I have two pubs out in the same week, after weeks of having no publications at all.

It's always exciting to place a story in one of the first places you send it, and MENACING HEDGE is a magazine I've long admired. This short story (just a shade over flash length, which I consider 1000 words and under) uses a child’s pov, which is rare for me, but this is a pretty sinister little girl. Here's “Where Did Sissy Go?”

Heard from two writers whose writing I admire tremendously, both of whom taught my work this week. Kaj Tanaka taught THE MISSING GIRL in his chapbook class and told me on twitter that "ppl loved it...that book continues to be such a powerful and important work about trauma and sexual violence." And Jill Talbot private messaged me on twitter today. "This week my beginning nonfiction students read 'Little Colored Pills' (we read about seven or eight essays each week). In their discussions, it was unanimous that your essay was the favorite of the week and for many, their favorite they've read this semester. It is such an engaging triptych with its disparate segments that coalesce so beautifully in the final lines (which many students quoted). I enjoyed addressing all of the effective craft elements at work in the piece, too. Just wanted to pass along that you have fans here. With admiration, Jill"

Still having trouble applying myself to my writing. I do a little here, a little there, mostly on LUNATICS' BALL essays-in-progress. The work for CRAFT becomes more and more interesting and challenging though. And I stayed up late last night critiquing a creative writing master's thesis, really good creative nonfiction, also a challenging and interesting task. A rare thing to have work you enjoy so much.

THE MISSING GIRL has gone into its second printing. I'm so impressed with BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS: the editors, the production standards, the marketing, their list. This month there's a 40% off sale on all in-print titles, and I've seen a lot of tweets from people who've just ordered my book. I never expected that, with a chapbook, two years after it was published.

BLACK LAWRENCE would be my dream publisher for THE LUNATICS' BALL, if I ever finish.

SMOKELONG QUARTERLY is one of a handful magazines I seem never to get into. Tyrese Coleman solicited me for the "Flash, Back" series on the SMOKELONG blog, where I wrote about Jayne Anne Phillips, I've gotten very close with a couple of stories, but mostly I just get standard rejections from them. Sudha Balagopal has a story in SMOKELONG QUARTERLY this week, and an interview, and she included me in the list of flash writers she admires (with some real heavyweights). So my name's in SMOKELONG anyway.

Finally, after a month of severely unhealthy air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area, the air has cleared. Steve and I were able to take walks three nights in a row.