Acceptance Friday

Might not draw as many followers as college football's Seperation Saturday, but I find it noteworthy nonetheless.

Monkeybicycle accepted a One-Sentence story I submitted to them a little while back and it is up today.

Also, Nanoism has accepted a compact piece I created with tiny sentences. It should appear in late January.

Pretty excited about both as I love both of these online journals.

Thanks so much Steven and Ben!

You Know What Happens When You Ass-u-me...

My story "Incorrect Assumptions are Made During Smear the Queer at St. Oliver's Catholic Grade School" is now live at Northville Review.

And currently the record-holder for longest title. Get Some.

Thanks so much Erin!

Hair Today...

I have a fun little coif-related piece up at dogzplot.

Thanks Barry.

Repping Sconny Nation

How do you like this?

It's nice when Wisconsinites get in the news for things other than, well, this.

Playoff Baseball

Playoff baseball is awesome. Baseball is sort of like beer. Beer is good anytime, but it's great on a boat or a Saturday or sipped out of a glass boot at a German Ale House with a polka band playing She's Too Fat for Me.

The playoffs are the German Ale House of baseball.

Welcome Back

Did anyone catch that start? Wow. Why was he throwing the ball so hard on 2-yard screens? It reminded me of the scene from ELF where Will Ferrell is dominating the snowball fight.

Settle down Brent.

New Story at FaW

Hook, Line & Sinker is now live at Fiction at Work. Thank you to Toby and everyone at FaW.

On an unrelated note, tomorrow is August. That's wild.

Diarrhea Dance

Attended a wedding over the weekend and the best man gave a speech mentioning a memory he had of the groom's father making the two of them get out of the car at stoplights to perform the Pepto Bismol: Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea dance.

This is what affects me at weddings. Not the vows. The best man talking about a diarrhea dance.

It's An Allusion You Dummy

Just got word that my story Incorrect Assumptions are Made During Smear the Queer at St. Oliver’s Catholic Grade School will appear at The Northville Review sometime in early fall.

In trying to create something clever and Northvilleish for the title of this post I started thinking about migratory goose habits. I then started thinking about why one side of a migratory V is longer than the other.

I then consulted the most reliable source of information in the world, Wikepedia, which is how I arrived at the title of this post.

Turns out one side isn't really longer. It's just an allusion. I like allusions. Perhaps their is an allusion in this short story that will appear at Northville Review this fall. Perhaps I just spent 5 minutes bringing that connection full circle.

Perhaps I'm much too busy for that. Or maybe that's an allusion too.

This Is For My Dogz.

Somedays don't you just miss DMX?

Anyways.

My new flash Old Man Power is now up at Dogzplot.

Thanks Barry!

Pull Up a Seat...

...to The Big Table.

My story "Typecast in this Town" is now up at Cortney McLellan's new fiction site - The Big Table.

Thanks for your "tweaking" brilliance Cortney.

My Name Up in Lights

Or in print. Even better.

A few weeks ago, perhaps on a whim, perhaps on a dare, author Robert Swartwood introduced the world to hint fiction.

Inspired by Hemingway's bad-ass six worder: For sale: baby shoes, never worn, Swartwood set out to determine how short, how complex, how perfectly tiny a story could possibly be.

He settled on 25 words. In fact, he started a contest. And, well, people like The New Yorker picked up on it.

The premise of hint fiction - making readers think, exposing something bigger than the 25 words on the page - was one that appealled to me. I like it when only a tiny piece is revealed leaving the reader to work for the rest.

So I entered. And I was chosen as a finalist.

And here's the real kicker - W.W. Norton, yes, that W.W. Norton, picked up on Swartwood's hint contest (at this point it's probably safe to call it a "movement") and is going to publish an anthology. An anthology that will feature all of the contest finalists.

An anthology that will feature my story Waiting.

So, my first anthology. Actually, my first fiction in print altogether. That always makes for a nice week.

Right now the anthology is scheduled for release in fall of next year, but when I know, you'll know.

And to Mr. Swartwood, thank you.

Fun in Your Cube

My story "Hook, Line & Sinker" will appear at Fiction at Work in July. FaW is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

As everyone knows fiction at work is much better than work at work.

My Intro

How I came to operate this blog...the cliff notes version. 

After dabbling in sports journalism for a few years after college, I became increasingly drawn to the world of fiction. Looking back, I can now attribute this infatuation to a number of factors that always existed on some level - an affinity for reading, a stubborness to adhere, my love of lying, etc. 

Anyway, the move away from sportswriting undoubtedly perplexed my father who had/has notions of me becoming the next Grantland Rice or Roger Angell or Tom Haudricourt. 

And while I loved writing sports, still do actually, there's something special about fiction. 

So, fortunately, I've been lucky enough to have some of my shorts published in a variety of places over the past couple of years. You can find links to those stories in the column at left.

The plan is to use this blog as a place to chronicle my journey in writing, in life and as a Notre Dame fan that was 8-years-old and wearing a Tony Rice jersey the last time the Irish won a national championship.

If you're a writer that has stumbled upon this site, welcome. 

If you're a family member, I'll see you at xmas. 

Thanks for reading.