Remember that time

when a Facebook ad was taken out the day before the Golden Globes to advertise a show's Golden Globe win, which they didn't end up winning?



Yup, that was a good time.

Submission Submission

I started off the new year sending out a big batch of submissions. About half of the stories from the Alaska collection have been published or accepted, but that leaves a good chunk of unpublished ones. Between the 31st and the 1st I sent out 18 submissions. There are still a few places I want to send stories, but whose submission managers haven't been turned on yet. And as of the 4th, two of these have garnered rejections.

The submission process is a form of optimism, I think. In 2011 an incredibly large number of my submissions went unanswered in any way. I don't know if other people had the same problem or not, but when you don't even get a rejection the process gets even more disenchanting. By the fall I was submitting less and less because I felt like no one was responding anyway. Submissions were sitting in the digital ether for hundreds of days, still are.

But, if there is any time for renewed optimism it is the new year, right? So, out go the stories, crossed go the fingers.

In other news, if you'd like to listen to me read the two poems of mine that were published in the recent issue of Stoked, you can do so HERE!

Also, I've recorded myself reading the first two chapters of Code for Failure and you can listen to them at the book's Facebook page! DO IT!

Hopes. Dreams. 2012.

Here we are: 2012. A date that once seemed so futuristic, so Jetsons, is here. No flying cars, nothing. As for 2011? Well, it wasn't the best year, but it was better than 2010. I'm no longer working the most soul-sucking job of all time. That's a major plus. 2011 brought Prize Winners, my first story collection. And Mile Zero, my second chapbook of poetry. 2011 also brought a lot of writing pain, as every year does for every writer. Rejections ranged from referring to the Alaska collection as "masterful" to one for my love/lust poetry collection that simply read "you can't be serious." And though it felt like I fell behind and wasn't publishing much, I suppose the links in the sidebar to everything that was published this year beg to differ.

There's no way to sum up everything about an entire year. The writers I talk to on a regular basis know what their existence means to me. And I hope anyone who reads this blog or anything else I do know they, too are deeply appreciated. Writing and having any group of peers matched with any sort of audience is like having an amazing secondary family.

As for my real family, my boys turned 3 and 13 in 2011. Not the easiest of ages, but they (along with my beautiful wife) are what keep me waking up in the morning and going to work. And they are what I look forward to coming home to all day long. There's nothing better than walking in the door at the end of the day and having a 3 year old come running through the house screaming "dad!"

And 2012. 2012 will see the publication of Code for Failure, my first novel! I'm excited to see this book finally reach the world.

But dare I speak of hopes and dreams? Dare I speak of the new novel, sitting in the hands (or more likely a pile on a desk) of my agent? Dare I speak of the full length poetry manuscripts that are beginning to pile up on the ol' hard drive? Dare I speak of my baby, the Alaska collection? My hopes and dreams are no different than those of other writers. One day, may the stars align. For us all.

Until then, I will strive to do more. Of all of it. The hoping, dreaming, and working.

My 3 year old became aware the other night that I stay up after everyone else goes to bed and he asked why. I told him to write. He asked why. "Because Dada wants to write books," I told him. "Oh," he said. "That's long work."

And Some Design News

In my haste to post yesterday, I forgot to mention that my Old Man and the Sea print was chosen to be included in Society6's official store, which is awesome. It means hopefully a little more exposure for some of my design work. With this renewed interest in the print I also designed phone skins and laptop skins from the print. I think the phone skin is particularly cool:



And though it had been a while since I'd designed any new prints the good news inspired me to work on something, and came up with this:



It's called "Reflection" playing on the elephant's memory, with the cycle of retrospection. It's available as a print, t-shirt, and phone skins at the Aesthetically Declined Design store at S6. CHECK IT OUT!

So Much News

ADP is finally stepping into the present with ereader editions of books. While Ayiti is still being processed with Amazon, the Kindle edition of Prize Winners is up! And it includes two additional stories! AND it's just $5! So, if you're the e-reading type, GO FORTH!


You Can Make Him Like You is also up! (Just went live as I started writing this post!) It can be downloaded for Kindle for just $6! GET IT!

Also, ADP's latest free .pdf is up! It's a poem cycle by Tyler Gobble called, Stale Champagne. GO GET IT!

Lastly, through the weekend, Black Coffee Press is offering a sweet 3 for 2 deal. Order my Code for Failure with Caleb J. Ross' I Didn't Mean to be Kevin and get JA Tyler's A Shiny, Unused Heart for free! YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!