Heffalump on Parade

Heather and I discovered the other day that someone at Disney was obsessed with frightening psychedelic elephants. After she reminded me of the Winnie the Pooh dream sequence with the Heffalumps and Woozles, I instantly remembered the tramua of seeing the pink elephants on parade bit in Dumbo. This connection isn't frighteningly impressive, since apparently it was a practice to cannibalize earlier animation at Disney, but the pleasant discovery was that the Dumbo "trip" was created before the recreational release of LSD...so perhaps the creators had...what is that...what is that called? Oh, an imagination. A kid-terrifying imagination...

"Stick" selected as one of storySouth's Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2008

Turns out my story "Stick" originally published in 3:AM Magazine has been selected as one of storySouth's Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2008. And I'm in good company with other notables from Roland Goity, Sam Pink, Kyle "I have four notables" Minor, Molly Gaudry, Blake Butler, Myfanwy Collins, Nathan Leslie, J. A. Tyler, and Heather Fowler.

And, of course, lots more, including my old foe: Lee Smith.

Me on Night Train

So my story "How Would You Know?" is up on the marvelous Night Train.

XX Eccentric: Discount Running Out

XX Eccentric
Stories About the Eccentricities of Women
A 2009 MSR Short Fiction Anthology

Edited by S. Craig Renfroe, Jr.

ISBN 13: 978-1-59948-187-6, cover price $16.95

* * * The anticipated release date is May 18. The Advance Discount Price of $9 (+ $1 S&H) will be available until April 27. These dates are subject to change. Please note that ordering in advance entitles the buyer to a discount, but does not mean the book will be received before the release date. * * *

The book can be ordered from the Coming Soon page of the MSR Online Bookstore. Here is a link that will take you directly there: http://www.mainstreetrag.com/store/

Please note: For those who would rather not order online, may also be ordered by check or credit card directly from the publisher; however, the discount is not as much if ordered this way ($12/book--postage included). Send to: Main Street Rag, PO BOX 690100, Charlotte, NC 28227-7001. Credit card orders, call 704-573-2516 (M-F 9am-5pm EST).

Why I Should Be Twittering Right Now

Old News

This is probably old news, but I'm reading Nick Hornby's collection of his columns in The Believer called The Polysyllabic Spree, which I got from the sale. Hornby quotes Gabriel Zaid's So Many Books: "the truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more." Hornby goes on to add: "That's me! And you, probably! That's us! 'Thousands of unread books'! 'Truly cultured'!"

God bless them both!

NatPoMo v. NaPoWriMo

Not since sitting about the large conference table in grad school and unselfconciously spouting the term PoMo (postmodernism, natch) have I had such fun as April. I get all aflutter just thinking about bugging Heather with the term NatPoMo. And then I heard about National Poetry Writing Month...NaPoWriMo. Haha.

April Fools

So a student for an April Fool's prank slipped in a fake assignment: A Notated Bible-o-Graphy. Sadly true to the reality of research among most students, the sources were from old reliables like Wikipedia and "google." Though, this research "detailed" the JFK assassination conspiracy involving Beowulf armed with a Hans Solo blaster. An A if ever I saw one.

Pictured the flying spaghetti monster because "It talks about the religion and it is origin."