The Middle of the Dark

Spent a lazy Sunday afternoon working on my novel-in-progress. I usually don't write in the daytime, but the little cage I keep this one in has been rattling very, very loud, and so rather than upset the neighbors, I fed the beast. I brought it up to 101 pages, which was a big goal for me. Normally 100 pages isn't a big deal; that's about a month's worth of solid work, but this one has been challenging in many ways. It also came along at a turbulent time. I suppose I'm a third of the way there, then; I always saw this as one of those slim puply newstand books that you could fit in your backpocket. On the zine front, I'm very proud and humbled to say I'm going to have contributions from Caitlin R. Kiernan and Steve Almond . I'm also very happy to have a comic from Matt Hanneman , an all around great guy, and one of the luckiest guys in the world. Check back tomorrow; I'll have a new conversation with Molly McNett.

It. Is. Freezing. It's 30 below right now with the wind. The coldest it's been all year and it's not going to let up anytime soon. I went to an open mic night at the Center for the Arts tonight. I hadn't read in public since Iowa City, so it was a little nerve-wracking, but I had a lot of fun. I read a couple newer poems, "The New Girlfriend", and "Surface", which I wrote for an art project my brother and I plan to do. There was another wonderful poet there named Pat King, who read all sorts of style poetry, Slam, some rap, some sermons, it was great. The trap of the bottle rocket writer. Because they take off and then go "BOOM!" "Look, if she's bludgeoned to death, I want to make sure we see some blood." I got back on the novel horse Thursday night. What else to do but write a big fat novel when there's half a foot of wind driven snow on the ground, right? I think I've decided to go ahead with the space-no...

This image, like the last one, also appears in my brother and I's poster project, though in an altered form. I call this one 'Flames.'

So we got hit by about six inches of snow today. It was nearly 60 degrees two days ago, which only goes to show that Iowa is really just a big tease. It's okay, though, since in one month's time it's St. Patrick's Day, and many of my dear friends I met in Ireland are coming to Waterloo - to Waterloo! - to celebrate. I cannot wait. The friends I made from that summer in Dublin and Belfast are some of the most special people in my life and I'm grateful to know them, much less them have them in my town. The new Irish pub downtown, Jameson's, will be open just in time for us to christen it in true IWP style. A while back I emailed a wondeful poet, D.A. Powell, to contriubte to my zine. I first met Doug when he gave a reading in Iowa City several years ago at Prarie Lights; he encouraged me to have faith with my writing and always keep going, and I've always remembered what he said. So I'm very, very glad to say he's planning to contribute a poem t...

The world is crazy. People are crazy. There's no advice for how to deal with it, regardless of what Dr. Phil says. If a big bald guy ever wants to sit behind a monitor and watch you go on blind dates and then talk about it on TV, you are not getting advice. You are getting more crazy. Luckily, there's a secret book for writers with juicy bits of writerly advice. Caitlin Kiernan divulges a little bit of this super secret info on her blog today: One thing it takes to be a working author, one thing that is absolutely requisite, is the ability to accept at least one grievous and unwarranted insult each and every day from a perfect stranger. There are no exceptions.(from pg. 15) So I sold two stories the other day. I also recieved a rejection letter that partly dismissed the story in question because it might be considered intolerant toward gays. Get this: the story is about people fingering people who advocate intolerance toward gays. And Charlie Brown says "UGGGGHHHHH...

Some love poems. I have nothing much to say on the subject. Usually I spend the day listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Sara." Yeah. "In the sea of love, where everyone would love to drown." Okay. My brother has designed an incredible cover for the first issue of the zine, which I think will now be called Other Than . I also got a new story from a former teacher of mine, Molly Mcnett, which is really incredible. One of her stories was recentely selected for the Best American Non-Required Reading, edited by Dave Eggers. My brother also took a photo of me for one of the magazines I sold to yesterday. It caught a lot of detail, like my razor burn. Need new razor...

My life is feast or famine. Ask anyone, they'll tell you. Good things in clumps, bad things in clumps. Today, this year hopefully, considering the last, seems to be the start of a good clump. I learned today I sold two short stories (commences with Peanuts Happy Dance to celebrate selling two stories in one day). The first, "Paper Man", will appear in a forthcoming issue of Shimmer . The story is about a young blind woman named Millie who sees the world through the things she makes of paper. The second is "Black Eyed Moon," about best friends who go in search of fallen moon rocks after an asteroid strikes the moon and the debris falls to earth. This will appear in the summer '06 issue of Fantasy Magazine . I want to take a moment and thank E. Sedia for her confidence in me and this story, and all her help. I really appreciate it. Back to happy dance...