Essays, excerpts & news

Journal

May 2014Pura VidaA teacher walks onto a stage in an upstate New York college hall. He sits and closes his eyes, presumably to meditate. We wait. And we wait. Fifteen minutes later he…→
Dec 2013A few chapters from my second novel, RenRen knew the woman would be dead from the moment she sat at the table across from him. It’s in the way they approach, he thought to himself, as he watched her enter the…→
Dec 2013Excerpt from NoiseI back the truck out of the garage and into a full-scale blizzard, the thick snow blowing horizontally and piling up against everything in its path. Though I slept for…→
Oct 2013The NovelFor much of my writing life, I’ve had a special disdain for writers who insist that it’s easier to write a novel than a short story. After all, it takes me years to…→
Feb 2012Vagabond Press InterviewWhen did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? I never wanted to be a writer. It always looked like a sad and lonely life to me, and it still does, but as I get…→
Jun 2011Literary Death Match Miami!So my first ever public reading was a hoot! Much more fun than I had expected, and I hope to continue. It was a seven minute reading, so I memorized the whole text,…→
Jun 2011New Fiction in The Battered SuitcaseI’m thrilled to have my latest work, ‘Losing Found Things’ up in the Summer issue of The Battered Suitcase. It’s one of the most difficult stories I’ve written (aside…→
May 2011The Spoken WorldHere are the rules: You must begin every sentence or phrase with a vowel. Any word beginning with a consonant is considered high risk and must be preceded without pause…→
Jan 2011Can’t We All Be Writers?Since the invention of the printing press writing and literature has remained relatively unmolested by technological change. We read pretty much the same way we’ve…→
Dec 2010Losing Found Things finds a home!My latest, and most personal work, will be featured in an upcoming issue of The Battered Suitcase, online and in print and Kindle formats. I’m oddly excited about this…→
Dec 2010How to Publish a Kindle Book, by Cynthia ReeserMy copy of Cynthia Reeser’s book arrived this week, where I appear as a case study. I’m expanding that into an article which will be out shortly. Controversy and…→