--WE DID IT! CONGRATULATIONS!

...I have a new story, "God of Rose and Thorn" up at Apocrypha Abstractions and another non-fiction piece, "Will You Please Not Be Quiet, Please?" about one of my idols, Raymond Carver, up at 52/250 A Year of Flash.
Both are also here under "Words In Print."

…I haven't seen a deer in quite a while. I love deer. They are so sleek and stealth and beautiful, almost poetic, reminiscent of ballet when they lope through the woods. Deer might be my favorite animal. I once saw a deer clattering down the middle of the road. This was maybe two years ago. I rolled down my window and started talking to it. Really. I said, “You need to get off the road. Go run up that hill there and disappear in the trees.” The deer gave me this huge, ogle-eyed look, like it thought I was some kind of weirdo. Eventually, the deer did take my advice and scamper off.
What are your thoughts about deer?
I worry about them getting struck by cars.
I worry about them when it gets very cold out and there are several inches of snow on the ground. I wonder where they go when it is freezing out.

…I have been listening to:
Jay Z
One Republic
Judy Garland
Little Bow Wow
The Faces
Hole
Guns and Roses

…I watched “Glee” last night. Yuck.

…It would be a sad world without music. Music is one of the 8 Things You Can Never Have Enough Of. And then there's Books, Movies, Photography.
Can you guess the other four?
Do you have your own list?

…Speaking of sad, it's sad to say this, but I've come to the conclusion that the vast amount of people in the world are flaky. Meaning, they say they are going to do this and then they don't do it at all. They just fade away.
I used to get frustrated by that. Now, unfortunately, I sort of expect it. So when people say, we should get together next month, I don’t worry at all. I just say, “Sure!” because it’s never going to happen.

…Tonight I am speaking to a group. I am going to wing it. I have some stories in my pocket that I'll tell. I might be a big hit or a total flop. We'll see.

…Some things are hard for me. Picking up the phone and calling a certain person is very difficult for me. It shouldn't be that way. I should want to pick up the phone and call this person because I should love this person but I'm not so sure I do and because of this uncertainty it makes me feel a little ashamed, although if you knew this person, if you knew the circumstances of my situation and history involving this person, well, you might be in my corner. I don't know, though. You very well could consider me despicable.

…Sometimes I think I am too much of a romantic. I want things to be sweet and lovely. I want to be loved. I want a happy ending. So that's why I turn to music. I let it swirl and swim through me. When I wear earphones is when it really seeps into my being. I love hearing the fingers plucking the chords and strings right there in the center of my brain, that hollowed out space needing something special and meaningful to fill it up.

…Oh yes.

…And here we are. Happy Wednesday.


"It's time to start living the life you've imagined."-- Henry James

"If you are not risking sentimentality, you are not close to your inner self." Bill Kittredge

"I find the more I practice, the luckier I get." Jack Nicklaus

"Most people who worry about morality ought to." Richard Hugo

"I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I figh, I do not hate, those that I love I do not guard." WB Yeats