Since I don't publish a flash a week as I used to (and don't miss it, the rush of satisfaction, all the social media attention, the distraction), I'm very aware of projected publication dates. My short story is a few days overdue. Happened to "see" the editor at an online book launch yesterday and he said something about site redesign. So who knows when it will be out.

Saw two former grad students from a very long time ago at a wedding this past weekend, and one mentioned that he teaches "Nola" in his AP English class. A very unexpected surprise. I'm really touched.

The wedding was at the Chabot Space & Science Center and there was a cool sky show with an enormous constellation of a centaur. I've finished what I hope is my last rewrite of my Ars poetica about hybrids (including centaurs and mermaids) and that seemed like a good sign from the universe.  I don't know why some of these short flash require so many rewrites. It's no wonder The Lunatics' Ball is advancing so slowly.

Agreed to serve on the judging panel for the spring Black Lawrence Press chapbook contest again. A lot of work (I read 50 chapbooks) but it feels like an important contribution to the literary community. I love their chapbooks and winning with The Missing Girl was big for me.

My strange hybrid flash "Lunatic Impromptu" is up a jmww.

And I'm in Capitola, eating cheerios with strawberries at a round wooden table by floor-to-ceiling windows in our nice Airbnb. It's chilly and gray and rainy outside, the surf is high--but cozy inside, with a fire in the gas fireplace. I'm looking at a gigantic mural across the street of a mermaid. Horace in his Ars Poetica cautions against mixing genres, lest you end up with a monstrous hybrid that looks like a beautiful woman above, an ugly fish below.  I rather like my  beauiful monster.

After meditating on the form for Jill Talbot, I'm surprised to see that "Lunatic Impromptu" is a triptych.

​My very slippery hybrid flash “Lunatic Impromptu” utilizes three narrative POVs and fictionalized lyric riffs in addition to researched factual exposition. I never know where to send this sort of work from THE LUNATICS’ BALL. I’m thrilled that Bradley David has accepted it for a new series at jmww called “Blended & Beyond”: “polyblends” that are “genre bending/blending/refusing.” 
 
It will be out next week.