My oddball, segmented CNF flash "A Dress with Pockets, or Mediterranean Vistas" is up at THE DISAPPOINTED HOUSEWIFE.  Big thanks to editor Kevin Brennan. And to Kathy Fish and the other fast flashers in her flash memoir class, who inspired me. A perfect fit: the class, the dress, the journal.

From the mission statement of THE DISAPPOINTED HOUSEWIFE: "Yet there is a place for 'high risk' writing, fresh, creative, experimental, idiosyncratic, idiomatic, iconoclastic writing. Writers should be allowed to have their quirks. They need blank canvases that don’t have predetermined dimensions."

​ Yes!

I'm a sucker for all things Poe. An anthology forthcoming from Twelve House Books, POESQUE, put out a call for short stories, including reprints, so I sent "The Leaf Blower," published last year in POTATO SOUP JOURNAL. They took it. I don't even get a print copy, only a .pdf, but it's always nice to see stories reach a different audience.

LATER: When I questioned this in the contract--"Should WORK require editing, minor edits (including those which may affect integrity of the narrative) will be executed without the permission of AUTHOR," and also said that they had to cite Potato Soup Journal as first publication—the publisher wrote back and canceled the contract! Very unprofessional. I wonder what kinds of edits they put their poor authors through and feel glad to have escaped.

Just heard from Kevin Brennan at THE DISAPPOINTED HOUSEWIFE that he loves the offbeat lyric-comic essay I just wrote in Kathy Fish's class! Don't have a date yet, but Kevin usually posts right away. THE DISAPPOINTED HOUSEWIFE published another oddball flash of mine a couple of years ago, and Kevin nominated it for a Pushcart, and DeMisty D. Bellinger at Fitchburg State University told me on Twitter that she teaches it. Not everyone in my writing group even liked it, but it's one of my favorites, very much my voice and aesthetic: "Two Guys Carrying a Toilet into Taco Bell." What is it with Taco Bell? I'm working on a flash right now where it features prominently.  We never eat there.

I've had work this week. Editorial work for CRAFT, though a week off from reading subs. Editing two pieces for friends, instrux for a new editorial assistant, this and that. A couple of disappointing rejections (one particularly unexpected and shockingly impersonal, from a magazine where i've published three times already). But  mostly I've been resting up.  Sea Ranch is utterly beautiful. We've seen deer, a fox, very large rabbits, lots of hawks and turkey vultures soaring and swooping down very close, seagulls, barn swallows--one just a few feet away on the railing of our deck (much more colorful than they look from far away). Steve saw seals on his hike today. No whales, sometimes visible on this part of the coast, just south of Mendocino County. There's a hot tub at our Airbnb. Very peaceful.

Thrilled that my essay "Cutting Edge" has been accepted at PERMAFROST, a really top journal out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks that is known for innovative, "unconventional, expansive" writing. (Steve was a finalist in their New Alchemy contest a few years back.) Particularly thrilled because this is one of the experimental cross-genre essays in THE LUNATICS' BALL.  

(Perhaps weird to thank magazines where I was rejected, but very encouraging notes about "Cutting Edge" from IRON HORSE LITERARY REVIEW, BELLEVUE LITERARY REVIEW, HAYDEN'S FERRY REVIEW, and BOULEVARD helped me stay the course on this one.)