I have a cover! Pre-orders for my flash fiction chapbook The Missing Girl will be available from BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS soon. In the meantime I love the cover art by Raeleen Kao, which I discovered while browsing old issues of the literary journal JET FUEL REVIEW. See my chapbook page (above) for advance comments.
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Today I had an essay accepted at THE GETTYSBURG REVIEW, one of the top (4?) literary journals in the country! (Here's a list of just some of the writers they've published in the past: E.L. Doctorow, Rita Dove, James Tate, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Wilbur, Donald Hall.)lThe acceptance came with some very thoughtful editing by Mark Drew, something that rarely happens in the busy, beleaguered world of literary magazines, in my experience at least. Not sure if it's coming out in the summer issue, or later. PINCH ME!!!!!

Now I'm wondering whether it would be nerdy to order one of their cool t-shirts (and whether it would be even nerdier to wear it). The one I like has a comment on THE GETTYSBURG REVIEW from THE WASHINGTON POST on the back: "Carrying literary elitism to new, and annoying, heights."

Bay Area friends! I'll be reading in a bucolic setting in Sonoma County in a couple of weeks. Stop by if you're up that way, or looking for a pleasant trip (okay, it's rush hour, so if you want a pleasant trip you should probably come earlier and hit some wineries):
Monday, April 10, 5:30 pm
Moshin Salon Reading and Reception
Tasting Room, Moshin Vineyards Winery, Westside Rd., Healdsburg
Here are directions.

So pleased to make my second appearance in JELLYFISH REVIEW, this time with my flash fiction "The House on Cypress Street." Check out the previous and forthcoming fiction in the "Kill People" series!  (And while you're at it, the terrific "Bad Sex" series last summer, which featured some great stories, and a story Steve and I co-wrote as Alvarado O'Brien.) 

Steve and I posted our winter quarter grades on Tuesday, and escaped for two days away at a spa in Calistoga. Naturally we couldn't get away completely. Steve had to post advance writing assignments for his creative writing classes (which start next week). I discovered that I never got the proofs for an anthology I'm in, coming out in a couple of weeks. And that I was supposed to make up a teaching prompt to go with my lyric essay. So I did that on vacation. And chose a cover for my chapbook.

The chapbook cover is gorgeous, and I'm not supposed to share it until it's final! THE MISSING GIRL, from Black Lawrence Press, comes out in September. I'll probably be talking about it constantly until then. The anthology (ROOTED: The Best New Arboreal Nonfiction, from Outpost 19) is kickass and includes some real heavyweights in the essay (Brian Doyle, Steven Church, Lia Purpura, Matthew Gavin Frank, Renée E. D’Aoust, Paul Lisicky). WOW! Can't wait until it's out. I think I will read my anthology essay ("Saving Trees," previously published in somewhat different form in CATAMARAN LITERARY READER) at the Moshin Vineyard reading at April 10. The anthology is slated to come out on April 4, so maybe I'll even have my copy.

​Just back from an incomparable writing weekend in Yosemite Valley with writer friends Carla Christensen and Alia Volz. (Thank you, Carla, for arranging the ideal retreat!) A gorgeous view of El Capitan and Half Dome from our deck, a trip to Bridal Veil Falls on our way out, lots of writing, good talk, good food, and on-the-spot workshopping. I made unexpected progress on a new essay and completed the final draft of a flash that was accepted by the wonderful Christopher James at JELLYFISH REVIEW before I even left Yosemite. (Chris is a fantastic writer, a great editor, and he’s fast.) Came home to the contract for my hybrid flash in HOTEL AMERIKA (coming out in 2018). It’s definitely starting to feel like spring.

Check out Chris’s latest fiction in NEW WORLD WRITING here.
 
And keep your eyes open for the “Kill People” series at JELLYFISH REVIEW—starting this week, running for a month or so. (Yes, my lurid flash involves a murder. Happy subjects don't seem to be my thing.)
 
Steve and I published a flash (“Three Conversations”) under our pseudonym Alvarado O’Brien in the “Bad Sex” series at JELLYFISH REVIEW last summer. It’s definitely worth revisiting that series, and browsing their archive, which is filled with amazing work.
 
Managed to get to Peg Alford Pursell’s book launch reading in Sausalito the night before I left for Yosemite. All the readers were great. I especially enjoyed Molly Giles’ bio, where she listed all of the magazines that had recently rejected her in alphabetical order. You probably need to be famous and well published to get away with that. Looking forward to reading Peg’s book, SHOW HER A FLOWER, A BIRD, A SHADOW.