hunt n' peck hero

Sabbatical Interrupted

2010-11-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

The interruption in this blog's sabbatical is brought to you by the fine folks over at Stymie Literary Journal. I'm fricken jazzed to be a part of Stymie's Autumn & Winter 2010 issue.

I submitted "Eternal and Unnecessary" (page 83) way back in the spring, probably when Cliff Lee was still a Mariner. I've been patiently waiting ever since to see it in (online) print and it's been worth the wait.

A big thank you to Erik Smetana and the folks at Stymie for accepting the story. Nothing cooler than writing a story on the world's awesomest thing (baseball) and having it accepted in a journal specifically dedicated to sports.

Molotov Cocktail

2010-05-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

New short at Molotov Cocktail.

Big thanks to Josh Goller at MC.

Habits

2010-05-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

They can be so annoying, can't they?

Check out my new short "Habits" at Staccato Fiction.

A big shout to Matt Boyd & Co. They're manning a kick-ass journal over at Staccato.

The Bullpen

2010-04-15T09:03:00.001-07:00

As the group continued to implode, a season was sent swirling down the commode.

It appears we're headed for a series of gut punches in Milwaukee.

Let's Play 162

2010-04-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Found out a few weeks ago my baseball-themed story "Eternal and Unnecessary" will appear in the Autumn/Winter issue of Stymie Magazine. Exciting stuff. Since it's opening day I also have reason to run the following once written by Roger Angell. It is f'ing fantastic.

Baseball: learn it, live it, love it.

It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitive as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look -- I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -- caring deeply and passionately, really caring -- which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naivete -- the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball -- seems a small price to pay for such a gift. Roger Angell, "Agincourt and After", 1975

A Limerick For Luck

2010-03-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Madness of March has begun yet again,
the Irish are dancing, halleluiah, amen.
It was an up and down year filled with mistakes and oh no’s,
we groaned in frustration and thought “god this team blows.”
However late in the season came a glimmer, a spark,
on a magical run Tory and Ben did embark.
They stomped through the gauntlet knocking off GTown and Pitt,
suddenly, out of nowhere, this team was the shit!
They slowed down the tempo and started to pass,
and lo and behold we kicked everyone’s ass.
We got into the dance, boasting a six seed to boot,
that miserable winter was suddenly moot.
Now the tourney is here, the fun about to begin,
let’s kick this baby off by stomping Old Dominion.

GO IRISH!

It's A Celebration Bitches

2010-03-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

The beer is green and the Irish are dancing in the tournament. Too bad St. Pat's didn't fall a day later. The Irish can't lose on St. Pat's. It's a mathematical impossibility.

Anyway, in other happy news my story "Loose Lips" is up as part of Crispin Best's very, very awesome Stories for Every Year Project.

Read it here.

Happy consumption.

1541 Was a Very Good Year

2010-02-05T07:31:00.000-08:00

Unless you were a Gypsy in Scottland. Then it was sort of prickly.

Confused?

Don't worry. Everything will sort its self out when my short "Loose Lips" appears in the awesome "for every year" project by Crispin Best.

Check out project specs here.

Thanks for the opportunity and the awesome response time Crisp!

I'll let ya'll know when it hits.

Happy Superbowl weekend...who dat trying to tarnish Peyton's legacy?

Nano, Nano

2010-01-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

New short by yours truly up at the awesome journal Nanoism.

Don't blink or you might miss it.

Thanks Ben!

Getting My Gloom On!

2010-01-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

The sky here in Wisco isn't the only gloomy thing today. My new story at Gloom Cupboard is pretty gloomish as well!

A big, big shout out to Allie Dresser at GC for her help and input.

GC named my short short "Flick" as this issue #114's "must read twice" editor's pick.

So go read it two, three or four times.

Happy divisional playoffs.

Acceptance Friday

2009-12-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-10-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

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

Thanks Barry.

Repping Sconny Nation

2009-10-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

How do you like this?

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

Playoff Baseball

2009-10-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-31T06:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-08T06:57:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

...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

2009-05-28T14:20:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-22T05:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

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.