Bricks Without Straw

Happy New Year! I'm pleased to announce that Morpheus Tales #19 is now available. This issue contains my story Killing Wallace Crawton . You can buy it in a variety of formats. Check out the free preview on Issuu.com. The ebook in various formats is available on Smashwords , or at Amazon for the Kindle. The printed digest size edition is available here , and the printed Large Format Collector's Edition is available here  (both 10% off until 1st of February).

It's been a very, very long time coming, but I've just signed the contract for TRAJECTORY, to be published by Anarchy Books later this year.

My short story, History of Early Music is set to appear in the November issue of Hobo Pancakes . This is a nearly-entirely fictional account of my young love affair(s) and music, guaranteed to not contain more that 10% truth. I wrote History early in 2009, and although it came close to acceptance a couple of times, it only found its current home more than two years after it was first submitted to a publication (which was, for the record, Taddle Creek ). The story (in its submitted form) contains several musical excerpts which I wrote specifically for the story, being somewhat inspired by the musical fragments that appeared in Margaret Laurence's The Diviners , as well as my own early musical compositions. The other inspirational source for the story was Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint , a brilliant novel of sexual self-gratification, frustration and guilt - not to mention neurotic family relationships - in other words, a book that has everything any reader would w...

I recently finished reading the wonderful novel, TRUE GRIT. Portis's voicing of Mattie Ross is exceptional, and, having seen the Coen Brothers' movie before reading the book, it was impossible to not see Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges, and Matt Damon behind the words. Also extraordinarily impressive is the job the Coen Brothers did in bringing the book onto the screen. There is a southern lyricism and bare-faced honesty in the writing, which they preserved, which is truly inspirational. So what does this have to do with zombies?

The first story I wrote (or to be more specific, the first story I remember writing that was not required for school-related work) was called Joshua Hamilton , a science fiction piece about 3700 words long that consumed me for about a week during the summer I was 15. My father was taken with it, and ran copies of it off one of the photocopiers at work and passed it around to several people, which was kind of embarrassing, because, really, it honestly sucked.

Until the 19th century, explorers were the R&D leaders of the planet, finding new ways to exploit desired resources. The business developers of the day turned exploration into economic gain by funding better ships, with regular schedules. Ultimately, there was a consumer whose demand for goods supplied the reason for the huge expenses of energy and time by the few who were forging ahead.

My short story, If Ever I Should Leave You, is in Morpheus Tales #12, coming out in April. Check out the preview, then buy a copy! http://www.morpheustales.com/preview12.pdf