Bosca Dubh

We do tend to like darker stories, but this was a bit nasty for my taste . . .

These two bird stories, along with an old wardrobe in my house and an interminably dull meeting at work, led to this story about eggs and furniture.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Fear not the cliche.

The venerable Australian magazine Going Down Swinging has included my story “The Tune Collector” in Issue #23, out with a bang last month at the Sydney Writer’s Festival. I’m very flattered to have been included in this multimedia publication (there’s a CD in every issue), and thrilled that my anonymity has spread over the ocean and across the equator.

The wonderful folks at Lily have published my story “Bank Holiday”; it’s in their National Poetry Month special, which I think is appropriate.

I’m very grateful to see that I now have four stories on the nomination list: Pieces from Small Spiral Notebook, I might not miss you from the Summerset Review, Self Defense from Pindeldyboz, and Ichthyology from JMWW.

Have you submitted your nominations yet for the storySouth Million Writers competition? Anyone who reads, writes, or publishes short stories online can nominate one story published in 2005 for the “O. Henry Prize of the Web”. And that means everyone, right?

This is an odd story, if it’s a story at all. Its subtitle is “Seven Studies in the Efficacy of Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’”; and if poetry were a drug, the FDA would hardly approve it for long-term use based on this research project.

Though I’ve been lucky this year to have eight stories published on line, and two in print, “Pieces” is the one that I feel came together the best. Take a look at it and see what you think. And if that one doesn’t quite do it for you, browse the rest of Small Spiral Notebook, without a doubt one of the best literary sites around.

This was actually the source of my first bad review (and second review ever); but while it doesn’t rise to the level of Cheever and Updike, it’s really not a bad story. In fact, I still kind of like it.