Micro Weird Has Landed

As I hoped, I was able to put the finishing touches on my collection called Micro Weird: Tiny Tales of the Strange over spring break. It is now available for both Nook and Kindle, at 99 cents. There are fifteen stories and a postscript about flash fiction. It’s over 10,000 words total but only about 8,000 of that is fiction. There’s also a section telling “about” the stories, which is something I like to do and something I like to read from other authors.

You all know I like variety in my writing. Well, this is the most varied collection I’ve yet put together. There’s some stuff in here that would be considered horror, albeit mild, some SF stuff, some humor, a children’s story, and a number of pieces that are really unclassifiable. I suspect there’s some things that will surprise even those who have read most of my previous work. Most of the pieces in Micro Weird were written in the last couple of years, but a few stories go back decades, including one (revised) that dates from the early 1980s. Only three of the tales have been previously published, and only one in anything some of you may have seen.

Despite the variety in the stories, there are two things that hold the collection together. First, all the stories are short, with the longest being about 1200 words. Most are quite a bit shorter. These days, these lengths are identified as either flash fiction or micro-fiction. Second, all the pieces strive for a twist ending.

The cover photo was taken by Lana outside Meteor Crater a couple of years back. We saw what looked like a giant picture hanging on the wall, and a man leaning “through” the picture smoking a cigarette. The “picture” was actually a rectangular opening in the brick wall. It was rather surreal to see, though. Lana did the blacking out of the figure so he’d be in silhouette, and I did the lettering. I used her “Gimp” program to manipulate things and it seemed far superior to Paint so I’m going to download a free copy of it for myself.

I hope you enjoy Micro Weird. I had a lot of fun writing these tales. If you want, you can pick ‘em up at:

Barnes and Noble.

As always, thanks for reading!

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NookBook At Last

Hurray! At least to me. Killing Trail is up as a Nook Book. Same price as over at Amazon for the Kindle. I never found out what the major issue was or even got notice it had been published. But I decided to have a look just in case late last night and there it was.

Here's the link for you "Nookites." Killing Trail

Still no Success

The announcement I'd hoped to make last Friday was that I'd finally gotten Killing Trail uploaded to Barnes & Noble for the Nook. Alas, that still hasn't happened. They claim to be having some trouble verifying my account identity, which has now got me all worried that someone has stolen it. So, what I'd hoped to be something good has not turned out so well. I'll give it a few more days, see if anything happens. If not I'll have to cancel the upload.

The only other thing I have worth mentioning is that I watched the movie Shoot 'Em Up tonight. In it, a man gets involved in trying to save a pregnant woman from a hit man and ends up delivering the baby. The mother is killed and now the guy has to take care of the baby himself while an army of hit men try to kill it. He enlists the aid of a lactating prostitute. And the resulting body count is higher than Commando or Rambo. This had to be the most over-the-top movie I've ever watched, and I loved every minute of it. Totally ridiculous but very well done. I laughed my keister off as one ridiculous but intriguing scene piled on another. I recommend it.
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A Poetry Evening

Last night a group of local poets had a poetry reading at the Barnes & Noble in Mandeville. It was sponsored by the Northshore Literary Society. Eve Brouwer, who is also a member of my NorthShore writing group, did the hard work of herding a bunch of flighty poets into some semblance of order and getting everything to run smoothly, including MCing the whole affair. She even baked cookies. Just to show you what Eve was up against, even I was late sending my poems in to her. I am not usually late on my responsibilities and was very ashamed, but she seems to have forgiven me. I guess we’ll see when she gets her chance to critique my next piece at the writing group.

I enjoy poetry readings, although I don’t go as often as I’d like. Most of the time it seems I have to keep my nose to the grindstone, but I did go last night and even read a few haiku from my collection Wanting the Mouth of a Lover. I much enjoyed the whole event. Some of the talented poets reading included Laurie Astoria, Pat Currie, Richard Boyd, David Cook, Sheila Delacroix, Mignon Fahr, D’Wanna Hanes, Kenny Mathews, Susan Newton, Mary Louise Guste Nix, and Eve herself. Our youngest poet was Evan Ross Cherry, who read his poem “Mardi Gras Day.” We also heard poems by two other local poets who were unable to be there, Gary Hanes and Jean Lutz. There were many good pieces worthy of discussion, too many to cover individually. We heard funny poems, dramatic poems, nature poems, spiritual poems, family poems, odes. A wide selection. There were also quite a few folks in the audience who came just to hear the readers, so it wasn’t just poets listening to other poets.

Sometimes we writers complain about the dearth of readers, or about the lack of interest that the world seems to take in literary matters, but in fact there are a lot of readers out there, and a lot of people with literary interests. You just need to look around a little. They, like the Northshore Literary Society, are quietly going about the business of creating and talking about stories, poetry, and books. While some of us complain, they are sponsoring poetry readings, and inviting authors to speak, and getting the word out about “words.”

Thanks to the Northshore literary society and to all the poets who read last night at Barnes & Noble. You gave me an enjoyable evening and I appreciate it.
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