Recent bylines

Long time, no time, le blogger! My website "links" page has more or less taken the place of writing updates. It's been a busy spring in the home office, where pajamas are mandatory and showers...need to happen more often. In recent weeks, the noise of the Brood X cicadas has made it hard to concentrate; it is as if they have hypnotized us and now all we can think about is mating and dying. Not all that different from everyday life, if you boil it down. 

 

I made this using Microsoft Paint; it got four (edited: TWO) likes on Twitter; a gratifying experience. Still a good use of my time, as it has made me laugh for several days in a row. Brood X!

 

 Here's what's up & where:

    A new humor piece at Points in Case: I Am the Mom in the Mop Commercial, and I Am Ready to Be the Mom in the Vacation Commercial

    Satiric opinion in The Washington Post: Hope you're enjoying March Madness here in Indianapolis. Could you move that mask up?

     A review of William Cooke's new book, Canary in the Coal Mine, for Indianapolis Monthly

    A review of Never Far Away by Michael Koryta, Indiana Authors Awards Book Reviews

    A poem, "Missing Trees," in Doubleback Review

 

 And here's what's coming soon: 

    A review of Leah Johnson's new YA novel, Rise to the Sun, in the July issue of Indianapolis Monthly 

    "Gone for Good," short fiction in Purdue University's Sycamore Review, where many moons ago I was the nonfiction editor

    "Side B," an essay scheduled for the fall 2021 issue of River Teeth

 

Now listening: 

"All My Favorite Songs" by Weezer (can't stop singing it: "All my favorite songs are slow and sad/all my favorite people make me mad...I don't know what's wrong with ME, do ooo ooo..." My 8 YO: "Well, THAT'S negative." Me: "Yet upbeat! I don't know what's wrong with ME, do ooo ooo, do ooo ooo.")

 

 

Current mood:

Hélio Castroneves’ Indy 500 win at 46 shows getting old is far from a sin

 

A fellow 46-yr-old! So true: Keep breathing & believing. #NotASin

Five lines in five minutes

 1. Sunday morning writing, light snowfall, good coffee, space heater in my home office/guest bedroom (which has housed no guests in many months): an inventory of small and important happiness. 

2. I do not want to download the game my children want me to download, which is not compatible with their devices and is compatible with the aging computer I use for work, and also the tablet I use for work, and a laptop that is slow but can maybe handle it, and I tried last night to download it to the laptop, which was indeed slow and didn't load, and they want to try again today whereas I want to read a book and bake some bread, but I forgot to make the dough yesterday, in part because I was badgered all day about downloading a game. 

3. The problem is low memory, she said, looking over her shoulder. 

4. The sadnesses of 2020 are too much with us. The flip of a calendar means nothing. 

5. Still, I will write the things I need and want to write, and will aim for hopefulness about all the projects on all the burners, and will remind myself of the thing that the person who helped me get my current position by writing recommendation letters on my behalf for literal years said, when I noted that the position was certainly stressful and different and came with higher risks/rewards: You wanted this, he said, in a chiding, singsong voice, with a gentle smile and kind eyes that showed he knew what I meant, and that I was in charge of what came before and whatever came next. 

 

(is this embroidered on a towel, and how may I purchase it, internet?)