A blog entry!

First things first:

The new issue of Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens is out.



Includes stories by Shane Jones, Steve Aylett, D. Harlan Wilson, Christopher Higgs, Sean Casey, Ben Stein, Katy Wimhurst, and Ryan W. Bradley.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, werewolves, transsexuals, and Frankenstein monsters, step right up and see curiosities and monstrosities, wonders and horrors like you've never seen before! See the terror of the Antipodes, the ferocious platypus! Behold the dark, twisted longings of the Satanic progeny of the magus Joseph Smith! For the first time anywhere see the elusive metaphor in captivity! And see the most rare and shy of entities, here for your amusement is the good life! Step right up and break through the barriers set up to protect the tender juicy white meat of your fragile mind, step right up and watch as we BUST DOWN THE DOOR AND EAT ALL THE CHICKENS!

Buy it here: www.absurdistjournal.com/current.htm

Personal things:

My new house doesn’t really have an internet connection. It’s been nice. I’ve been a lot more productive. I’m writing this blog entry in a Microsoft Word document.

When I first moved here, my housemate, who is another MFA student, told me the only way I could get an internet connection is to steal someone’s wifi by going into the upstairs bathroom and standing in the shower with my laptop resting on the window sill. But my battery only lasts for three minutes, so I would only have time to download my email. I did this a few times, feeling totally ridiculous, afraid I would drop my laptop on the shower floor.

Later, I was told by another housemate that I could get a connection from the garage, so that’s what I do these days, although it is not very dependable.

The semester starts in ten days. Have been looking forward to it. It will be a nice, relaxing change from the intensive summer program. One of the classes I’m taking is on reading and writing noir. It’s cool because Will Christopher Baer used to be the professor’s student and Will Christopher Baer is one of my favorite authors.

Have been looking for a work study/on campus job like crazy. Nervous about that. Need money to pay rent. Did a few interviews. One was at the Allen Ginsberg Library. Didn’t get that one. Bummed about it. Suspect cute girls were hired over me. Have always wanted to work at a library. Usually when I apply, I get a “Do you have any library experience?” response. Would have been nice to have gotten some library experience.

Still waiting to hear back about a position in the writing center.

Have also been reading and writing like crazy. Spent a couple of weeks reading like three books a day. They were usually pretty short. It was the opposite of my book depression-affliction that I suffered about a year ago where I didn’t like anything/couldn’t finish anything. I liked nearly everything. Went back to some of the books that “defeated” me during my book depression and flew through them.

Everything I write these days seems to be novelette-sized. I wrote the first draft of one in four days. Now working on another about a ninja. It’s going great. Hoping to be finished before school starts. If not, no big deal.

Looking forward to meeting Daniel Bailey and another writer who I like who emailed me about getting a beer. I like his stuff and had no idea he lived in the area.

My story, In the Restaurant, won a &Now award (subtitled: The Best Innovative Writing. It’s described as “Your friendly neighborhood anti-Pushcart Prize collection.” The story will be reprinted in their anthology, which is coming out in a couple of months.

Found out my cousin who I haven’t seen in maybe ten years is getting her Masters in psychology at the same school as me and just moved here. Big coincidence. Met her a couple of days ago. It was nice.

Things are really good, except for the dire financial situation. Have been living off credit for the past couple of weeks.