Month: March 2014
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day with a Story
Well, youse fellas have already seen it, back at Christmas-time, but I figured, in honor of Saint Patrick’s very own day, I would re-publish (by just re-linking) my short story about Saint Patrick’s next trick, after ridding Ireland of all the snakes.
So don’t waste any time, just go download “Saint Patrick’s Next Trick,” which is a far better way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day than wearing a shirt or button that reads “Kiss Me, I’m Irish.”
For next year I’ll consider printing the entire story on a button, if you prefer to express your Saint Patrick-ness on buttons.
Download “Saint Patrick’s Next Trick” 
Selected Shorts Stella Kupferberg Prize: Wish Me Luck
So my entry into the Selected Shorts 2014 Stella Kupferberg Short Story Prize is off, wish me luck. It’s called “The Foragers.”
Selected Shorts is one of my favorite ways to pass the time in the car. Their podcast is free on iTunes and has some amazing quality stories and readings of those stories. Their late host, Isaiah Sheffer was one of the greatest voices I’ve ever heard. When I’m writing short stories I often try and hear them read in his voice, because if it doesn’t sound good when he’s reading it it’s likely not going to sound good when a reader is reading it.
I have a few targets on my mental writing cork board, those stretch goals to hit someday, and one of them would be to get a short story of mine produced by Selected Shorts and read live, on stage, at Symphony Space in New York City. So here’s hoping…
P.S. By ‘wish me luck’ I do mean that, if you should see me wandering in your general vicinity today you should attempt to rub my belly, like some emaciated Buddha. And if I’m not in your general vicinity you should rub my belly *with your mind*.
The All-Time Greatest Video Game, Re-Released
Okay, so I’m not supposed to be doing this — the writing of this post or the playing of the video game I’m about to mention — but the greatest video game of all-time has been spiffed up and re-released by the BBC.
Written by Douglas Adams, the text-based game is based on the text-based novel and text-based screenplay of the same name. It’s a game from the time when games were games, men were real men, and women were real women. Kumquats didn’t exist. Lemurs were simply a rumor. Tacos were mythical things that hunted in packs on the Mexican river banks. The world had yet to resolve into actual pictures, which is why all of our games were simply letters and empty space strung together.
It’s got Douglas Adams’s trademark humor and is engrossing to play, and I’m doing all I can not to play it right now, because I need to finish editing my book. And the more I talk about it here the more I’m going to want to play it. So I’ll just say that you should really, really check out this game, take a trip down memory lane, even if you’ve never seen or played this game before. Unless you’re working on a novel. In which case, you should work on that, first, then you can go play your video games. Consider it a carrot at the end of the tunnel.
Still Alive… Not Allowed Outside Communication
I’m typing this to you from an undisclosed location on a stolen WiFi signal (rigged, MacGuyver-style, from a coffee filter, three paperclips, a filling from one of my teeth, and a pencil) so my minders won’t know that I’m not feverishly typing away at Butterfly.
I am still alive. Send Dunks.