The Middle of the Dark

This is your country, folks. So you girls just plan on getting pregnant, and staying pregnant, until your government says otherwise. I've been reading the stories in the Jigsaw Nation book, and most of them, like my own, are very outlandish in their depictions of a future America, but then you read stuff like this, and it doesn't seem so crazy. Another tragedy: The Vessey St. staircase , the only surviving remnant of the World Trade Center, which developers intend to get rid of. That would be as criminal as 9/11 itself -- this should be the memorial. The staircase to the sky. These people in charge of redeveloping the site need to use thier heads. Computer watch: still toast. Now hard, calcified toast. Dangerous if you throw it hard calcified toast.

My first review , of my story "Black Eyed Moon", which appears in Fantasy Magazine this summer. You have to scroll way down to see it. It was nice. So my fingernails are safe. For now. Writer and Other Than contributor Steve Almond quit his job at Boston College in protest over the school's invitation to Condoleezza Rice to speak at their commencement. Good for him. It's raining cats and dogs here. Nothing like out east, but I'm over it. I almost got hit by a car on the bike today. He ran a red light. Thankfully, I have the reflexes of a tiger. Or something. I got my copy of Jigsaw Nation today. Despite having long since had the thrill of seeing my name in print for the first time (years ago when in 1995 when I wrote my first article for the newspaper) it was still very satisfying to see my first short story in print. The book looks great.

And the big news: the zine now has an official website . Go there and check it out. I've partnered up with good buddy Sugu to bring the zine to the web; I want to give him a big round of applause for all his help and hard work with the site. Couldn't have done it without him. On the site you'll find excerpts as well as info on how to get the zine, how to submit to it, and a lot more. Not taking orders just yet (the issue is forthcoming) but hopefully soon. Give it a look and let me know what you think! The final cover for the Summer '06 issue:

Computer still dead. Amazingly, I'm holding together just fine, thanks. Over the last week I stumbled on a new idea for what will be my next novel -- or something -- and I'm very excited about it, because I've been living with the seeds and the fruit of my recent novels for ten years or so, and I'm happy and ready to be cultivating something new and fresh, something for the future. And in the near future, like on May 19th, the new issue of Shimmer will be available. It contains my story "Paper Man," about blind Millie. You can get it from Clarke's World for sure, and I'll post here when it's up on their site. And don't forget about Jigsaw Nation , too.

You've all heard by now your phone calls are being collected by the NSA, because you might be a terrorist. Also, the administration is betraying its own national security by alerting the Mexican government of the locations of Minutemen on our side of the border. Oh, and by the way, they lied about the war, and when an American ambassador called them on it, they outed his CIA agent wife. I'm not one of those people that are salivating at the prospect of a Democrat landslide in the fall, just so we can launch investigations and impeachments. We're better than those guys, or we should be. Let history judge Bush. But all of this is anti-American, anti-democratic, and in a just world, treason. Which is all occasion to pimp my American going to hell in a handbasket anthology, Jigsaw Nation, now available for order at B&N . It includes my story "The Switch" and many others by very good writers. This was the first story I sold. I'm thrilled to see it in pr...

My normally cruel and unforgiving headaches that situate in the roof of my mouth and behind my eyes have lately migrated to my back and neck, so I've been out of it. And now, my computer has died. Maybe it was the same thing that took down Ben's, I don't know, but it's dead, it died, I don't think it's coming back. So things will be light here until I can get back to normal capacity. You have no idea how much you rely on something until it's gone. A writer without a computer, it's like being out in the weeds. A news junkie without the web! Even worse. A man in horrible pain without the proper medication! So-so. I'll have lots of stuff about the zine soon, including the website, which is cool. Stay tuned. Peace, love, understanding.