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Rearranging the Bones at Pithead Chapel

Rearranging the Bones is a flash story about a walk in the woods and being eaten by a giant owl. Kim Magowan, the editor of Pithead Chapel, described it as my bizarre narrator-as-owl pellet story. Also as ‘such an oddball.’ I love that kind of reaction. She also saved me from screwing up the ending with an extra sentence.

 

This is another story that came from walking in the woods. I interrupted a western screech owl on the ground about to eat a mouse. It looked at me like he wanted to eat me for interrupting his meal. Good think he was only about a foot tall.

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Small Gods in Rumble Fish Quarterly

Rumble Fish published my flash story, Small Gods, in their Spring 2020 edition (pdf). proving that even during the pandemic, art goes on. This is my most revised flash ever, re-written twelve million times. It started out as an Artist’s Statement for something I didn’t end up applying for. It is still my Artist’s Statement. Also the story I did not read at the Hot Pillow reading cancelled at AWP 2020 in San Antonio, the last trip we all took together.

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13,000 yr old cave art

Hunter, Gatherer

Gingerbread House published my flash piece called Hunter, Gatherer. I wrote this after reading Yuval Noah Harari’s book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind which chronicles the history of Homo Sapiens from their spread out of Africa 1.9 million years ago, wiping out five other hominid species, taking a possibly wrong turn towards agrarianism and eventual dominance over the planet. A great book about our sad/funny history. Seemed ripe for comic flash retrospective.

The stunning graphic published at Gingerbread House is by Brooke Shaden, whose photographic magic I’ve appreciated for years and follow on Instagram. I’m not going to infringe on her rights by reproducing the art here, but encourage you to visit the story for a peek. You can see Brooke’s art on Instagram at @brookeshaden or on the web at http://www.brookeshaden.com/prints/

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The Future is a Blue Dog

Published in the Spring 2019 edition of the Penn Review right here. This fulfills Donald Barthelme’s mission for literature (“The aim of literature … is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.”). At least the first part dealing with fur.

Huge thanks to Penn Review. This is my first appearance in the Ivy League. They are awesome to work with and FAST. They accepted this in 6 days.

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