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Mark Pritchard interviews the always illuminating Sarah Salway.

Yes! Yes! Yeeesss!

Do you remember those books when you were a kid where someone would send in your name and then miraculously you would receive a book that starred YOU (I never had one of these but I had friends who did and they were never quite as cool as you thought they would be–the name printed in was always so obviously added later. It was … Read More Yes! Yes! Yeeesss!

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Here are two great stories you will not want to miss: The Bracelets, by Bev Jackson & The Day, by Patricia Parkinson

Newburyport Literary Festival–Part II–Nancy Zafris & David Crouse

Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction winners Nancy Zafris and David Crouse were on tap at the second and final reading we attended. As much of this year’s festival centered around remembrances of Andre Dubus, Crouse and Zafris both gave theirs. Zafris told the touching story of her first encounter with Andre Dubus and how it changed her life. I had read this essay … Read More Newburyport Literary Festival–Part II–Nancy Zafris & David Crouse

The Newburyport Literary Festival–Part I–Richard Russo

From the looks of things, I would have to say the first annual Newburyport Literary Festival was a smashing success. We arrived just in the nick of time to get seats for the Richard Russo reading, which was held in the beautiful UU church. Richard Russo was immediately charming in that he told the audience he was nervous when he was first introduced to … Read More The Newburyport Literary Festival–Part I–Richard Russo

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nuclear bunker buster: This animation depicts a proposed weapon with a one megaton yield. The funding for this weapon was cut in 2005 defense appropriations. However, the United States still has a B61-11 nuclear ‘bunker buster’ in its arsenal which has a 400 kiloton yield, which could still cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and spread radiation to other countries.

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"At that stage I was a completely unknown writer, a distinction which, through diligence, I have maintained to this day."

Before this last week, I had never heard of “book packagers” before and, frankly, I find the whole concept depressing. However, this piece about one writer’s experience, made me laugh–I Coulda Been a Pretender: However, having never lived in the United States, I had no idea about what was permissible in terms of cussing, especially in kids’ fiction. We had agreed, previously, that I … Read More "At that stage I was a completely unknown writer, a distinction which, through diligence, I have maintained to this day."

reminders

The first annual Newburyport Literary Festival runs today-Sunday. I’m looking forward to catching some of the events tomorrow. Next week at this time I will officially be shitting myself as it will be the day of my Dire Literary Series reading. Not quite sure what time I’m going on, but it will be at some point after the open mic readers. Okay. That’s it.

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Thanks to my buddy Robin Slick, I learned the Jordan Rosenfeld has a cool new story up at Juked. Check it out (by the way, I’m aware that I’m being tres 1980s when I say, “check it out”–it’s not something I actually say in real life; rather I reserve it for here. Check it out!): The Change. In other news, last week Sue Henderson … Read More read it x 2

flowers and dogs: what more do we need?

I have a fondness for these tulips in particular. They are shorter than the others and their leaves are bluish, their flowers orange, red, purplish. Here’s a shot of all of some of my spring flowers. Darby is aloof this morning because I was up in the night and he’s pissed that he didn’t get enough sleep.

read it (NOW damnit!)

Kathy Fish is one of those writers who makes me swoon. And her story in the latest Night Train–put on their website via .pdf–is no exception. I promise it will move you. Read it: What Kind of Person Gives Secrets to the Sky?