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Girl Found Alive at Bottom of Swimming Pool. Seeks Vengeance.

June 9, 2014

I haven't been writing much lately (aside from general outlines in prep for YouTube video making...but I wouldn't count that). So when fellow Write Club alum Gayle Towell approached me about contributing a story to her new Microfiction Monday Magazine project, I hesitated. But then, I figured 100 words (the limit for stories to appear on the site) wouldn't be too difficult to squeeze out. And while that ended up being partially true, I also very much experienced how rusty I had become even in the short few months since I've last written any fiction of substance. Well, my effort--a story about a man and woman being scared of their child--which I am pretty proud of, went live today. Click over to Microfiction Monday Magazine to read my story "When Susan's Daughter Sank." It's visceral, dark, and language heavy, just like I like 'em.

Red Formaldehyde, the most delicious kind

December 15, 2008

Another fine yarn from ye olde Caleb J Ross takes valuable web space away from more needy charities. This one, an excerpt from my unpublished novel, Stranger Will, is called Formaldehyde and appears at the never disappointing Red Fez. Formaldehyde is a bastardized version of the opening chapter of Stranger Will, very much pulled apart and reassembled into something with its own horrible intentions. This is all to say that if you don't like this story, then you may still love Stranger Will. However, if you do love this story then I take back what I said above; this story is exactly like the rest of the novel.

Snake Girl at 3:AM

October 19, 2008

I've been clicking over to 3:AM Magazine for quite a while now. I can't remember where I first heard about it (probably from Dogmatika, where I hear about most every great thing in the underground lit scene), so I can't place praise with full accuracy. However, I can pass on the good word. And what better way to do so than via the news of my own story, "Snake Girl at Scab," getting some page space. Some author notes on the story: During my first visit to Portland, Oregon (USA), some locals took us to an event called First Thursdays, a neighborhood art gallery orgy (artgy, if you will) with booths, food, music, and lives to be changed. Most cities have these types of events, but due to a strange encounter involving an emotionless girl carrying a snake, this artgy impacted more than normal. The snake girl depicted in this…

absurdist flash

January 12, 2008

The Bizarro journal, Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens, has published my short-short piece "The Barber Who Calls Himself Ferguson" in their recently released Issue 7, available as a free .pdf download here. Other writers include John Edward Lawson, D. Harlan Wilson, Jason M. Heim, and others. "The Barber..." is quite a bit different than what I usually write, as my aesthetics since this story was originally written (2004) have changed. This is by no means a denouncement, just a way to say we change. I do love the story, though; I wouldn't have okayed it for publication otherwise. Author's Notes: My first attempt (of many) at being Brian Evenson. I hope that if I ever get to meet the man—more than the passing book signing plea—he doesn’t beat me for abusing his name like this. Luckily, though, most readers probably wouldn’t draw a comparison to Evenson…

Brian Evenson’s names

December 18, 2007

I thought I'd do something different this time around. I recently read Jeremy Robert Johnson's story collection "Angeldust Apocalypse" (which is absolutely amazing); with it JRJ does something unique. At the end of the collection he as a section called Author's Notes, which are a series of anecdotal behind-the-scenes snippets on each story. Here's hoping it catches on. So, with my newest publication I figure I would do the same. Present Magazine has just posted my story "Dry Dot." Here's the thoughts: At every rain I wonder—though the drop patterns are likely random—if there is a single spot somewhere within the downpour where no drop falls; where the concrete remains dry. Give water’s tendency to pool together, could there be an untouched dot? Further, how would we explain it? Science? Maybe, but wouldn’t that argument just be destroyed by politics? Global warming, anyone? It seems even the earth is subject…

…out of WordRiot

September 16, 2007

Via the work of Stephen Graham Jones, author of tomes and short stories alike, I came upon Word Riot, an online literary magazine showcasing some of the best short fiction around. Diving further I came upon former fiction co-editor of Word Riot, David Barringer's story collection "We Were Ugly So We Made Beautiful Things." This brief work (68 pages) absolutely below me away. I knew, after reading that collection, that I had to be a part of whatever Barringer had his hands in. Luckily, Word Riot considered my words suitable. Appearing now is my short fiction piece, "Our Guy." Skim it, then immediately buy "We Were Ugly..." (if not for the stories, do it for purposes of understanding what the title of this post means). Word Riot is a Monthly online literary magazine with a notable book catalog under the Word Riot Press imprint.

what happens to us isn’t good

October 1, 2006

Flash fiction: feeding a demographic composed of people without much time to read but with plenty of time to think. I used to think of flash fiction as a pompous intellectual commercial; there is something buried in there, but more often than not it doesn't want you to know what it is. The burden lay with the critic. But then I happened upon a little thing called the internet, where flash fiction has been allow to flourish outside—and even influence—academe. Amy Hempel, an author who writes in a very flash-fiction, minimalist style uses the following lines in her story "The Man in Bogotá," which textualizes my eventual change nicely: "It took months. The man had a heart condition, and the kidnappers had to keep the man alive [...] He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good." The internet has without a doubt promoted the art of…