Friday, December 28, 2018

2018's Top Ten Blog Posts

          A few years ago the end of the year Top Ten of anything was pretty much named for nearly anything. Cars, movies, songs, and even the worst Top Ten lists get a list. (but it's a video with really annoying Muppet-like characters which are unknown muppets. Hint: If something isn't funny, making it come out of a Muppet's mouth makes it still, not funny. To avoid pain and suffering the picture below doesn't link to the actual video.)

       
          Blogger has an option where I can see the most viewed posts by week, month, year, and all-time.    I don't take it too seriously but here's the Top Ten, from most the most popular, on down, with a little comment about each one. You can also click the red links to read the original post in its entirety.




TOP TEN MOST VIEWED blog posts from 2018. 

Saturday, December 22, 2018

2018- My Year in Publishing




          Much has happened in the past year. 2018 was chaotic, disruptive, and hypocritical, but lets leave politics and socially unacceptable behavior, past and present, out of it. Then again, why would you put "sexually assaulted someone" on a summer calendar anywho, Mr. Kavanaugh? 
          
          Below is a list of what I published and links to various interviews and podcasts from 2018. I also wrote a novel and spent a lot of time this year searching for an agent to represent it. Overall, though the list is small, my acceptance rate was high as the total number of submissions, was rather low. 
          
          There were also readings in Los Angeles, New York, Leicester, Yale University, Worcester, Newton and ten readings in Cambridge and Somerville to close out the Dire Literary Series. 



          For 2019, I have a lot of hope for the future, and I wish the best for my writer friends that they feel progress toward their writing and publishing goals, and most of all, so that they continue to plug away.



BOOKS

Every Day There is Something About Elephants,, March 2018, Big Table Publishing


SHORT, FLASH, AND MICRO FICTION
"After the Afterlife", November 24, 2018 Flash Boulevard
"A Modern Form of Disorderly Conduct"
"Touching All the Bases"

“What Kids Are Scared Of" August 16, 2018 Crack The Spine Print Anthology XVII

"Every Day There Is Something About Elephants", April 7, 2018 Flash Boulevard
"Continuum"
"Simplicity is Beautiful"

"Historic Men Talking By a Fire" March 7, 2018 Oddball Magazine

"Death Pool" March 1, 2018 Ink In Thirds



POETRY
"Concerto"
September 4, 2018 Northern New England Review

"I Remember, August 1967"
"Fear, God Bless My Soul"
September 3, 2018 Anti-Heroin Chic

"Untitled"
May 1, 2018 Ink in Thirds, Vol 2, Issue 3

"My Name is Paul (after Trouble Boys)"
April 1, 2018 Nourish-Poetry, Issue 1

"Concerto"
January 25, 2018 The Long-Islander News 



INTERVIEWS AND PODCASTS

September 13, 2018
August 15, 2018

April 27, 2018

 April 1, 2018

March 11, 2018







Friday, December 7, 2018

Best Books I read in 2018


Hosting the Dire Literary Series and having my own readings puts me in touch with other great writers with great books. Time constraints didn't allow much other outside reading but year I'll have time to actually shop, pick and choose!

Anna Ross 
Figuring

TG-Moving poetry at the micro and macro level









Laura Van Den Berg 
The Third Hotel

 TG-A loss and grief paranormal mystery (would make a great screen series)








Mark Saba
Ghost Tracks 

TG-Short fiction not about paranormal ghosts but the ghosts of a city (Pittsburgh)






 
 Joan Wilking
Mycology

TG-If a tree falls in a forest what happens? Life, death, humor and sadness.







 
 Erica Garza 
Getting Off

 TG-An honest, vulnerable memoir about sex addiction. 








Amy Dresner  
My Fair Junkie

 TG-Funny, gritty, honest. I loved this one.









 

J. D. Scrimgeour
 Themes for English B: A Professor's Education In and Out of Class


 TG-Memoir essays which I bought for it's signature essay about basketball, but remaining essays are just as good.





 
  David Atkinson 

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Stealing Loose Change from My Pockets While I Sleep
 TG-Flash fiction which covered surreal, real and otherwise






 
 Rusty Barnes 
On Broad Sound

TG-Poetry, Revere, Massachusetts themed. The man amazes me with his talent.