…I have a new story, "Revelation" up at 52/250 A Year of Flash and also here under "Words in Print." It's an apocolyptic take on the Bible's book of Revelation.

…I have lived in big cities and suburbs. Where I live now is not like those places. Not many miles from where I live now there are cattle, lamas, free range chickens that often skedaddle into the road, donkeys, goats, show horses and two really darling midget horses. Around me are trees and farms and rolling hills. The lake I live on is postcard and daily steals my breath and attention. Still it can be a tad redneck in these parts. For instance, I counted 17 (SEVENTEEN) different tattoo magazines at 7/11. I have nothing against tattoos. But this 7/11 does not sell GQ or Vanity Fair. The New Yorker is out of the question, as is The Atlantic Monthly. It's like the last time I saw a Tyler Perry movie, all the previews were black-themed.
Yes, we all were a uniform, a costume, whether we realize it or not. But we have individual DNA.
At this exact moment, some chucklehead is zipping across the lake in a speedboat even though you are not allowed to go more than 8 MPH until the start of Memorial Day. He'd better knock it off. People around here are not only gun owners, but they know how to use the.

…I have a coffee cup on my desk that I bought at AWP from The Rumpus table for $10. It says, WRITE LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER with the letters in red and shaped like a heart over the ceramic white background. I realize Motherfucker is not a nice word, moniker or label, and that a lot of people would take offense to a hot term such as m.f., especially if the hot term were spelled out in bloodred captial lettering like the ones just right of my mouse, but I really like this mug and what it is trying to tell me to do. I don't know how most motherfuckers write. Actually, I don't know any motherfuckers who are writers, (I do know some who aren't authors) but I'm thinking the cup is telling me to write passionately and profusely, to write hard, to stop screwing around and not let myself get disuades or distracted. I am thinking that's the message, and that that is why I am found of a mug which tells me I should write like a motherfucker.


…Here are some things I've read or heard that are fresh and interesting:

"To get through seventh grade, you only need one friend." Molly Peacock

"Pleasure and displeasure wrap around each other like snakes." Natasha Vargas-Cooper

"Someone asked me once which is worsed, ignorance or apathy? I said, 'I don’t know and I don't care.'" David James

"Half the battle with confidence is exuding it to other people even when you're not really feeling it yourself."
"You've got an emergency. Who would you call at four in the morning, knowing they would get out of bed and do whatever they could to help you? Those are your friends. That reduces your Christmas-card list a lot."
"The most powerful tool I've learned is silence."
"'How many times have you been properly in love?' is a great question."
"Arrogance is a total lack of self-awareness." Piers Morgan in the February Esquire

"Sometimes kissing is better than eating. Most of the time it is. Actually, all of the time. Kissing, if it's good kissing, is all the food you need." Anonymous

"Sending out your story is like moving to a new city--finding your store, café, gast station, church." Anne Holman

"Writers keep going, because that's what writers do."
"The only way to avoid rejection is to stop sending work out." Geetha Kothan