My Talking Dog now up on the Slagdrop!

Howdy, folks.

My story, "My Talking Dog," is now up for your enjoyment on the Slagdrop. Click here to hear it, read it, and enjoy the illustrations by Todd Mein. 

I had a good time recording this one. I made a theme song for it, played me some guitar, some ukulele, and some singing. Hope you enjoy it.  

Longbrief Vacation from the Cheese. I'm back.

It's been a long time since I've posted. Last time I posted I wrote about a cop-family killer and now he's dead.

There's your update.

I've been hard at work on a new project called The Slagdrop. If you click that name, it'll take you to our site.

Basically what we're trying to do is marry many art forms into a website designed to get short stories heard. It's a "collective" more than a traditional magazine where many people can submit (although we are going to be quickly transitioning into that).

Why are we doing this?

The whole world has changed. Means of distribution have been diluted so much that artists rarely get paid for their work unless they're getting published in the New Yorker. The short story, a form that Americans love but a form that writers can't generally make a living off of (except for George Saunders), is extremely hard to place and most small presses don't pay a damn thing for the honor of showcasing them.

While we can't pay much, the plan is to have a site run on donations. Writers will get pretty token payments as an appreciation for allowing us to have their story. All stories, with few exceptions, will be recorded as an mp3 so readers can become listeners and engage with the story anywhere they want. Download it, listen to it while you exercise or run, sit in your car in traffic; you will not be limited to sitting in front of your computer and staring at a screen to enjoy the story.

We're planning big things. We have a live show coming on May 25th. We want to publish an anthology with a download code for the mp3 album of every story in the book. We want to take the show on the road.

All of this can be done by sharing our page and encouraging people to donate.

To make things really easy, here are individual links to every story published so far:

http://slagdrop.com/home/2013/04/10/kim-jong-il/ - The Miraculous Life of Kim Jong-il

http://slagdrop.com/home/2013/04/04/two-cowboys-settle-a-dispute/ - Two Cowboys Settle a Dispute

http://slagdrop.com/home/2013/03/01/ticket-to-nowhere/ - Ticket to Nowhere

http://slagdrop.com/home/2013/04/05/fecal-matter-in-the-water-cortin-a-zelaznog/ - Fecal Matter in the Water

Out of the Gutter 8

Howdy folks.

Out of the Gutter has just released OUT OF THE GUTTER 8 and it features one of my flash stories, "Two Cowboys Settle A Dispute." You should check it out. Everything Out of the Gutter posts on their site is phenomenal pulp reading and I am honored to have been selected to be anthologized in print.

Click here to buy the paperback. 

Click here to buy the ebook.

Out of the Gutter 8

Get your Ebook version of Out of the Gutter 8 today!

My story, "Two Cowboys Settle A Dispute," is in it!

Christmas Shopping Part II (The shameless non-self promotion post)

Choice Cuts by Joe Clifford

Piggyback by Tom Pitts

The Zelaznog Criterion Collection by Cortin A. Zelaznog

The Early Death of Men by Clint Margrave

Strange Light by Derrick C. Brown

Who Farted Wrong?

by Syd Butler

Frankenstein 2010

by Andrew Hilbert

Of course I was going to self promote a little. 

Let's beat a dead horse

Broadwell.

Petreaus. 

Love triangle.

Who cares?

Out of the Gutter is making a print anthology and the stories with the most views will get printed.

I have a horse in this race. It's called, "Two Cowboys Settle a Dispute." 

This cowboy wants a dispute settled. Click anywhere on this post to read the story. If you've already read it, read it again. 

That's one way to settle it. 

My Talking Dog

Head on over to the Ppigpenn to read my latest story, "My Talking Dog." Click anywhere on this sentence, dude.

Cowboy diplomacy

Howdy, y'all. This here post is to inform you that the wonderful folk down at Out of the Gutter Online posted my goddamn story, "Two Cowboys Settle a Dispute." Click the title or here, or here, or here, or here to read it. 

It's a tale of mystery and intrigue, temptation and murder, donkeys and jack asses. You'll dig it.

There is sadness in my eyes.

Support Foxing Quarterly

Literary journals are a labor of love for the most part. An editor spends tons of time reading submissions, pulling their favorites, printing them and binding them into a beautiful product only for a salary of negative hundreds to thousands of dollars. I know this because I ran a print only literary journal. 

Beggars & Cheeseburgers was short lived but it made a mark in Long Beach, CA. Things unraveled after the third issue. We had a fourth issue's cover done, we had already accepted submissions, we were ready to roll. We just didn't have money. We had subscribers and anxious readers but nothing to lift us off the ground and get something printed. 

Thanks to Kickstarter, Foxing Quarterly can be funded by total strangers who appreciate the art and what we are doing. 

Click here to throw some cheddar Foxing Quarterly's way. 

Upcoming readings

Hello Cheeser Nation.

I will be reading at the Fresh Meat Poets Showcase on Friday, July 20th. I'll be one of the first readers. Doors open at 7:30pm, show starts at 8pm. It'll be at Space12 on 3121 East 12th Street, Austin, TX. Here's a link to the Facebook event page.

I will also be reading at the Foxing Quarterly Book Swap on July 27. It starts at 9pm. I'll be reading a short story. Haven't decided which one. Here's a link to the Facebook event page.

Add those dates to your calendar. See you then. 

Push down the boogers

All week I've sat in front of this computer trying to think of ways to push down Big Man Japan's disgusting booger post. But I couldn't partly because I wanted to compete with those filthy, crusty things on his fingers and partly because I don't know.

In order to keep all of my published work in one archival type of place, I've made a bibliography page. It can be accessed by clicking here.

It is incomplete and an ongoing project of mine to keep it updated. In the meantime, look at how lame I was in 2009.

I searched "lame in 2009" and this image popped up. Apparently patriotism was lame in 2009. 

The Lollipop Gang

Head on over here to read my story, "The Lollipop Gang."