Briefly...

Over the weekend I had a short essay up at HeartOnSleeve Review. It's called "The Chicken and the Egg Disorder" and details some of the compulsive behaviors I have attached to reading and caring for books. If you're interested in learning a little about my crazy GO READ!

Fashion Forward

The t-shirt I designed for Fix It Broken's "Fashionable Fiction" and Heather Fowler's story, "Ex-Boyfriend's Head" is available for order, and from what I hear, going fast (in fact only a few sizes are left)! Make sure you get yours, 'cause it's super sexy and stuff:

A Little Bit of Brain

Last week, in fact a week exactly, I hit my head at work. I was working on receiving four pallets of textbooks (136 boxes, weighing over 7,000 pounds combined) and dropped a book underneath the large wooden table where I lay out whatever I'm receiving. I got down on the cement to grab the book, ducking my head under an old office chair. In the process I slammed my head into the metal rod used to adjust the height of the chair (the rod was missing the customary plastic paddle on the end). I thought I yelped, but a co-worker said I didn't make a noise until thirty seconds later when I stood and rubbed my head, saying "ow." I didn't think much of it, but within ten or fifteen minutes I was feeling dizzy and nauseous.

I've had concussions before, a couple while on various jobs (one that I write about in Code for Failure). I started thinking, "crap, I hope I didn't give myself a concussion" but I passed the thought off, figuring I'd probably hit my head harder in the past. But then I started noticing other things... or not noticing. Over the next few hours of work I found myself constantly forgetting what I was doing, forgetting co-worker's names, not being able to count past 14. The next morning I misspelled "Ryan" as "Riab."

While my brain is getting back up to speed I'm still having a lot of head pain, sharp shooting pains through my skull, my jaw bone, in my ear canal. I still feel more "out of it" than normal. I've had a hard time writing, though I have written a few new poems, including one that I think has given birth to the title for my next full-length poetry manuscript (which I didn't realize how many poems I had sitting around for).

Anyway, more than anything this post is to say that if I haven't posted much, or if I owe you an email or something, this is why you haven't heard from me. I'm working on it!

(Also, I created a new "Unpublished Works" page. It features the titles, tiny synopsis, and in most cases a place or two to see or hear excerpts from completed yet unpublished manuscripts. CHECK IT OUT!)

A Small Thing

A small story from the Alaska collection went up at TNBBC yesterday as part of their "Tell Me A Story" feature. It's called "Trench Swimmer" and is set at the pump station I worked at and based on thoughts I had while we tried to drain a trench that was flooding with groundwater. GIVE IT A READ!

And DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR FREE POETRY!