Sorry to be so long silent. Am spending most of my time looking inward lately, instead of spewing outward. But for those of you who still stop by here (and thank you!), I wanted to update you with some news:

1) I am honored to have my story Orange Crush live today at Storyglossia. There is accompanying commentary on the story in the Storyglossia blog. Big thank you to Steven J. McDermott, the editor of Storyglossia, for this lovely treatment!

2) Do yourself a favor and go on and read Bless You, by my dear friend Kathy Fish.

3) Finally, please check out the San Francisco Chronicle’s SIMMERING SUMMER READING list where you will find mention of such notable (and highly anticipated by me) debuts as Pia Z. Ehrhardt’s Famous Fathers and Other Stories and Ron Currie’s God Is Dead

A new issue of Narrative Magazine is now live, featuring the outstanding work of such writers as: Ron Carlson, and Pia Z. Ehrhardt (whose debut short story collection Famous Fathers and Other Stories is set to release soon. You won’t want to miss it).

Also, not to be missed is Ann Beattie: A Profile.

We went to the Hopper exhibit at the MFA in Boston yesterday. It was excellent–a collection of his etchings, watercolors, and oils.

While I love his glimpses of rooms through windows, I must say that my favorite works in this exhibit were his New England landscapes (I suppose it is inaccurate to call them “landscapes” as they are paintings of buildings upon the land).

Particularly, I was drawn to his watercolors which have a real clarity to them–and which have captured the spectacular and unique light of Boston’s north shore perfectly. We learned that Hopper did not like to do the watercolors (or grew frustrated with doing them? Can’t remember exactly the phrasing). He explained that his watercolors were “non fiction” (because he painted them with his subject before him) thus were limited because they showed the flaws of nature. He preferred his oil paintings because they were the “fiction” he created back in his studio.

Don’t get me wrong, his oils are lovely but for me the REAL of the realism lies in those watercolors. The way he captured light on the rooftops!

I had thought the more famous paintings of his (Nighthawks and Chop Suey, etc) would be those that grabbed me, but after viewing the landscapes, they left me a bit sad. Desolate. (With that said, the commentary by Wim Wenders–if you chose the audio tour–for Nighthawks was fabulous.)

Where there is hope in light on a rooftop, there is desperation in the faces of the people. They are trapped in rooms, behind glass (or through an open window). They are looking out or into something. They are observed. I wonder if Hopper wasn’t something of a misanthrope (and believe me that I’m not judging him if he was!) or if my own frustration with the people around me yesterday made me understand his vision this way.

If you’re near Boston for the next three months or so, I would encourage you to give this exhibit some of your time. You won’t regret it.

LCR is a beautiful, interesting journal within which I am proud to have published a story. I just received this info via email and so am passing it on to you:

LILIES AND CANNONBALLS Review seeks compelling articulations of utopian/dystopian realities, ideologies, and fantasies, submitted during the months of May and June.

All forms and styles welcome.

Sample copy: $10.

P.O. Box 702, Bowling Green Station, New York, NY 10274-0702.

For more information and complete submission guidelines: www.liliesandcannonballs.com.

The new salt flats annual is available and it looks great.

Here are some links:

Pia Ehrhardt’s Crescent City (whooosh! love this!)

Jim Rulands’s Robert Smithson’s Time Machine (haven’t read this all the way through yet but what I have is fascinating)

Hello! I’m honored to have my flash The Daughters live at Monkeybicycle this week. Thanks for reading.

Passing on information about this wonderful, generous prize:

Dzanc Books (http://www.dzancbooks.org/) announces the inaugural Dzanc Prize – a monetary award to a writer with both a work in progress, and an interest in performing some form of literary community service.

The award itself will be a total of $5,000 to be distributed in two payments over the course of a twelve month period. The purpose of this prize is to give monetary aid to a writer of literary promise, in order to provide a budgetary cushion for them, allowing the author to concentrate his/her efforts on the completion of their work in progress.

Eligibility: Any author with a Work in Progress, and a project in mind that can be deemed Literary Community Service.

Timing: The Inaugural Dzanc Prize will be issued for the 2008 calendar year. We will accept submissions from authors from now through November 1, 2007. The announcement of the winning author will be made during the month of December 2007. The announcement will be made both via email to the author, and on the Dzanc Books website, as well as sent to trade journals (P&W, Publisher’s Weekly, etc.).

Submissions: Authors please send your current cv, a description of your Work in Progress, along with a ten page excerpt, and your planned Literary Community Service. These should be sent as MS Word Attachments in an email to info@dzancbooks.org.

Dzanc Books will be selecting the author who will receive this $5,000 Prize based on a combination of the Work in Progress, and the intended Literary Community Service. It would probably benefit authors who are submitting to become familiar with Dzanc Books and the types of authors we will be publishing, as well as the Educational Programs Dzanc Books sets up and runs.

Some examples of Literary Community Service:
– Running a series of writing workshops in a school
– Volunteering to do a storytime session or series at your local library
– Volunteering to work at a local book festival (if the festival is run as a
non-profit)

The winner of the Dzanc Prize will receive a check for $2500 in the month of January 2008. The remaining $2500 will be paid once the Literary Community Service has been completed. Dzanc Books will make no claims towards the winner and their Work in Progress. If at the time the author has completed the work, they wish to submit it to Dzanc Books, we will be delighted to have a look.

I met Mark Pritchard at Squaw Valley Writers Workshop a couple of years ago. We were in the same group and at the time Mark was working on a book that sounded intriguing (both from the sample and plot description). The novel was set in Bangalore, India–a place Mark had never visited.

Now, however, he has visited and is posting fascinating dispatches on his blog about his experience there. Go on and read them and check out his photos as well: Too Beautiful in Bangalore

This makes me proud and happy to live in New Hampshire–Lynch Says He’ll Sign Civil Unions Bill:

Gov. John Lynch told The Associated Press on Thursday he will sign legislation establishing civil unions in New Hampshire.

If the bill is approved by the state Senate, New Hampshire would become the fourth state to adopt civil unions and the first to do so without first having a court fight over denying gays the right to marry.

“I believe it is a matter of conscience, fairness and preventing discrimination,” Lynch said.

You GO, Gov. Lynch!!!

Sorry to be so self-promotiony lately, but I find myself without words for other things going on (horrible VTech massacre leaves me speechless, the fact that many of my local roads are washed out from the massive nor’easter and it is now snowing prompting further worries of global warming–okay, I guess I do have a few words–but no insights).

Anyway, I’m very excited to once again have some work featured in one of my all time favorite ezines, FRiGG.

Here I am: Three Stories

I am honored to have a story in the inaugural issue of Quay, a new journal offered in both print and online versions (they open for submissions again on May 1). If you have time to read it, here is my story: Cowless, Rainbowless

Good news: You still have time to get your taxes in AND you still have time to nominate your favorite online story published in 2006 for The storySouth 2007 Million Writers Award for Fiction.

A few things of note:

* if you do not nominate a story, you are potentially taking $300 out of someone’s pocket, because that’s the amount this year’s winner will make.
* if a story is already nominated, you don’t have to nominate it again. The judges do not decided (or at least not in the past) based on the number of nominations a story has received–rather they judge on merit.
* stories must be 1,000 words or longer to be eligible.

Here are the official rules. Now go on and nominate someone!