I have a new Substack post on my recent creative nonfiction and on hybrid writing in THE LUNATICS' BALL by way of the essay I wrote about Geoff Dyer, which is partly about that. I never wrote a blog, or read blogs for that matter, but I can see the appeal that they had. You write something and then you post it. No looking for publication venues or worrying about whether what you've written is a coherent essay.

I should hold off on the interesting subjects: it will be almost a year before the book comes out, so it's really too early to start promotion.

I never have micros that are only 6 sentences long, but I fooled around with this one and sent it to GOOSEBERRY PIE a couple of days ago (not micro fiction so I just called it a micro,) and the editor Jeff Harvey accepted it today! It will be out in July.

Speaking of short, I have just about nothing under 300 words, and even though the FlashFlood Journal takes reprints, they've already published my micro fictions under 300 words in previous years. I sent them a few things this year (nonfiction) and they were rejected. So I won't be part of this year's party. Oh well.

Nice reading at Santa Clara University yesterday. First flash reading I've attended at a university, I think, organized by flash writer Claudia Monpere for SmokeLong Quarterly's EIC Christopher Allen's book tour in the US. Great dinner with lots of friends afterward. An elevator pic as we were leaving for dinner:

I finished the "final" edits of THE LUNATICS' BALL last Sunday and sent them in. That is, the manuscript went through a round of developmental edits from the Mad Creek EIC Kristen Elias Rowley. As agreed, she made suggestions for cutting the manuscript from 92,000 to 85,000 words (partly by cutting several essays, but also by trimming prose throughout, transforming two essays in particular that I now love). I had to really mull the edits over, and got the manuscript back to her for one last round where I answered her questions, mulled some more, inserted all 14 illustrations with notes for production and alt text descriptions for the visually impaired. (Permissions, especially for the illustrations, and finding high res photos turned out to be SO much work.) Sent the "final" manuscript, and all 14 images, and the permissions log and backup materials on the specified due date: April 19, last Sunday.

There will be more to do. A big marketing questionnaire. Copyedits. Approving a cover (I provided a lot of input and two possible illustrations, but the cover will be the Press's decision.)

But this is a major milestone and this week feels like vacation, despite quite a bit of work at CRAFT for our Memoir Excerpt & Essay Contest.

EXACTLY one year ago, on April 24, 2025, I submitted THE LUNATICS' BALL to Mad Creek Books/Ohio State University Press! (I didn't realize it was an anniversary when I started this post. I'm amazed.) Now it will be a book by March 27, 2027. Which may sound like a long time, but I was already prepared for that by the illustrious members of my writing group who've published books in the past few years (with Big 5 publishers and indie publishers).  And prepared for anything, given their experiences, when it came to editing: I lucked out with an enormously talented editor.

The latest in CRAFT's  Chill Subs  listing (Duotrope for the cool kids): 

"Top-tier stuff. Not Paris Review, but close enough."

They're up! Someone in the comments on Facebook referred to NEW WORLD WRITING as a "brag mag," a magazine to be proud of, and I'm really honored to have "Three Flash Fictions" there. "Maisie Fails to Anticipate the Ordinary" is new, the one I wanted to start sending out. "I Still Don't Care About Hegel" was taking a rest after some rejections. And "All Told" was one I wasn't sure about sending out at all. I've had it for a long time, it's gone through a couple of rounds of revisions, but I wasn't sure it was publishable. Very surprised that two writers I really respect have singled out that one as their favorite.

​Facebook is feeling like a very supportive community for my work.

I'm about 2/3 through a final read of THE LUNATICS' BALL, almost ready to send the final manuscript back to the Press (due April 19). It's strange to let it go. 

I'm hardly sending anything out, and I'm thrilled to get an acceptance of three flash at once, and from NEW WORLD WRITING QUARTERLY, a really good magazine founded by Frederick Barthelme. They published one of my favorite recent stories ("The Blue-Haired Woman on the Polish Freighter"), and rejected a number of submissions since then. On their "About" page they list a daunting number of famous writers they've published over the years, and even their recent publications since they went online are stellar (recent online writers have included Bob Hicok, Dorianne Laux, Christine Sneed, Brad Watson, Lori Ostlund, Mary Grimm, Floyd Skloot, George Saunders, Pamela Painter, Ann Beattie, Thaisa Frank, Bobbie Ann Mason,… I'll stop.) My friend Dawn Tasaka Steffler published three flash there today, so they must be starting to publish sets of three. (I love Dawn's work.)  As I scroll through the column of publications, I see  lots of friends, which is exciting. I'm honored to join their ranks.

​I don't think they have covers? But here's something Kim Chinquee (one of the editors) posted for Winter 2026, so maybe they do.

Just had coffee with Patricia Bidar, who showed me the new Ghost Parachute anthology, which is available for purchase at Bookshop.org here. I have one of the 175 flash. So does she, and lots of friends.

I'm really excited to have this issue's creative nonfiction writing prompt in the biannual WRITERS' CHRONICLE. It's paywalled, for AWP members only, but a ton of writers are AWP members. 

I guess if my book will be out, Steve and I will be going to AWP next spring in Chicago. We didn't go to Baltimore this year, but we went to L.A. the year before that. Thousands of writers attend. It's enormous and pretty overwhelming.

Lots of buzz around my nonfiction flash "Faceplant" (more than 110 likes on Facebook, last I looked). Partly because so many readers seem to have had bad falls themselves (who knew?) but partly because many readers/writers admired the writing, so that's gratifying. It's something I've wanted to write about for a long time and I'm glad I did.

Making great progress on the edited manuscript of THE LUNATICS' BALL and the other required materials. Did a second round of edits. Filed the illustrations (SO much work and I hope it's done) and the permissions, and I'm almost done with the rest, due April 19.

I have a new Substack on the centenary of the day that Violet Gibson attempted to assassinate Mussolini. And on readings and salons: reading my LUNATICS' BALL flash "Shooting Mussolini" at Patricia Bidar's book launch at Books on B in Hayward, and again at the Irish-American Festival's Literary Salon in a grand mansion in San Francisco, and reading my opening flash "The Lunatics' Ball" at Sasha Vasilyuk's paperback launch in the Mission in San Francisco some time ago. Once again I elected not to have the Substack delivered to subscribers' or followers' email inboxes, because I don't want to be a pest. I get so much unwanted email myself. I'm sure fewer people read it this way, but I can live with that.

​I'm getting very close to having all of my edits and everything else ready for the April 19 deadline at Mad Creek Books. Once we got going, it's been a pleasure to work with the EIC Kristen Elias Rowley. Very exciting!
​

Thrilled to be in CLEAVER again with a nonfiction flash “Faceplant.” (My two previous pubs in CLEAVER, both nonfiction flash, are among my very favorites.)

Thanks to Kathy Fish for her “thirty seconds” prompt, which unlocked something I knew I wanted to write about, but wasn’t sure how to approach. What I mostly remember about my faceplant, besides how scary and sudden it was, is that split second as my face was rushing to meet the cement, and how that split second and the sickening thud that followed recurred for weeks after the event. Kathy Fish's prompt (I think it was about the thirty seconds preceding something that happened, or maybe the thirty seconds after?) opened a door for me.

I'd been invited to give a craft talk at the launch for the new issue of SUPERSTITION REVIEW, which had published my essay on Joseph Cornell. Luckily, I had the talk already written, but I had to do the talk (which had a powerpoint at least) and the Q&A with the camera off because of the abrasions on my face and black eyes.

The EIC at CLEAVER, Karen Rile, does all of their art. Love the art for "Faceplant" (attaching, but the original actually moves!).

The inaugural issue of Sarah Fawn Montgomery's magazine NERVE TO WRITE looks great, with a lot of writers whose work I know. Pleased to see my essay "Normal" among them.

I originally wrote the essay with THE LUNATICS' BALL in mind, and then realized that it repeated too much material I'd used elsewhere in the book. I wrote about that, and an appreciation of Sarah Fawn Montgomery's work, in a Substack today. I don't really know how Substacks work, and I elected not to have this delivered via email to my followers. I'll see if anyone notices it at all this way!