Welcome to my website. The landscape here tilts to the ocean under the plains.
January of 2009 -- Can that be right?
I know there was a promise floated that this site would be more consistently battered by its host, but the end of 2008 delivered a terrible personal loss for me and my wife. We're hoping that the new year brings new hopes, successes, and peace for us and for everyone.
Some good news? The Kansas City Star ran a very flattering review of Inside & Out, and the book also made "The List" for the February issue of Salt Lake Magazine (a seriously trendy, seriously terrific slick from my second favorite city). And the Utes are national champions. At least that's how I see it.
December of 2008 --
After much heckling, I decided I will make more of a conscious effort to keep this missive section reasonably blog like. Look for more frequent updates, even when there's nothing spectacular going on in my life. This semester, already drawing to a close, has been pretty brisk, though. I submitted my tenure review and get to sit on my hands now until April. If that doesn't come through, there are jobs in Kansas to be had. I'll probably have to commute to Garden City, though, to pursue my options as a meat processor. Might not be that different from leading a workshop, though I hear the smells are a bit substantial and certainly not brisk.
I made a few trips around the Middle West to pimp the new collection of stories. All of that went well, but made for some brisk, shortened academic weeks.
The sales of the new book of stories have been brisk. One of the stories from the collection, "Why Oshkosh," was also recently nominated for a Nobel Prize. Or maybe a Pushcart Prize. Whichever one is for the best fiction from smaller presses. Either way you can order a copy of the book here: http://www.mainstreetrag.com/store/. The cover was designed by Lacey Stratton from a photo by the tetheredtothesun team. I really like the result, and hope you all do as well. I've started posting kind words here.
I've been horribly unsettled by Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent, a very funny book but one that takes up that Mid-West snobbery I loathe. It does speak to a certain kind of self-loathing I've noticed in works by David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, and even (especially) Willa Cather. There's no doubt a good deal of provinciality out here, but that's not always a bad thing.
Anyway, Marvel comics also put out yet another encyclopedic edition of their history called Chronicle. Only this one has proven useful. This honker, shaped like the letter M and marketed in a coffee-table-wannabe box with book ribbon enclosed, retails for about $50. I got mine on the cheap courtesy of eBay and have been enjoying the year-by-year recaps of newly introduced heroes and villains, philosophies as to why certain characters have had staying power, and, most significantly, the juxtaposition of world events. It makes for a brisk read, given the higher value placed on visual representation over text, but I've certainly enjoyed.
Again, keep checking back, and contact me here with questions, insights, or secret information.