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New Story Dropping
Hi everybody! My new story, “Wolfpacking,” might upset some people—fellow Marines and family members alike. If that doesn’t encourage you to read it, I don’t know what will. “Wolfpacking,” the runner-up for phoebe’s spring fiction contest, is the explanation of military hazing that you’ve never heard before. Contest judge Nick White called it “haunting, meditative,…
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No More Doors: How to Really Write an Ending
I read, not long ago, a craft book called Mr. Potato Head vs. Freud. It’s by my friend and mentor Clint McCown. It’s a good book. There’s much nuance and sound advice in it. But I never agree with everything I read in a craft book, even a book by a friend. In the case…
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New Publication
Hi everybody! A new piece of mine, “This Is a Windsor Knot,” has just been published on Every Day Fiction. It would mean a lot to me if you gave the story a read and a rating. EDF has a star system like goodreads, and if you love me, you’ll help me inflate the rating…
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Wolfpacking
I’m happy to report a tremendous failure. Last month, I submitted a short story, “Wolfpacking,” to about eight different magazines. I wasn’t sure it was ready, but as you may know, I’m collecting rejections. My goal this year is fifty rejections. Unfortunately, before Wolfpacking had the chance to earn a single rejection, phoebe accepted it…
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Embracing the Wastebasket
In the summer of 2018, I got addicted to the wastebasket. Tossing a poem into it gave me a buzz—like a puff from a Marlboro Red. So, I threw away a short story—more intoxicating, like a shot of Camarena tequila. You know how these things go. I wound up sliding a 300-page memoir into the…
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AWP
Hi everyone! Unfortunately, today’s won’t be the kind of post you can really sink your teeth into. But if you’re intent to procrastinate, follow this link to a new table of contents for my blog. You can now read all my best posts without scrolling past the duds (like this one.) Tomorrow I fly out…
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New Publication
Hi everyone! I’m pleased to announce that a nonfiction piece of mine is available in the newest issue of Arts & Letters magazine. My contribution is called “Strange Fire.” It offers a surprising answer to two questions: how do troops in combat drink water? and how much waste–of time, energy, spirit, life, and plastic–does war…
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Easiest Way to Write a Song
“The challenge of creativity is to take an old formula and deploy it in a way your audience has never seen before.” When I was a teenager, most of my favorite lyrics were evocative nonsense. If I didn’t understand it, I assumed it was profound. I also thought my favorite artists were all on drugs,…
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The Whoopie Cushion, pt. 2
The first man to sit on a whoopie cushion may have been the Roman emperor Helioflatulus. The last man to sit on a whoopie cushion was Greg Patterson, about thirty minutes ago. But the moment of rupture is brief, and the journey is so much more significant than the sitting. On a cold January day,…
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The Round-Up
Happy New Year everyone! I haven’t posted much lately, as I have been relaxing over the holiday. So here now is a brief end-of-year wrap up and a few new goals for 2024. First, if you’ve been with me for a while, you may remember this post about collecting rejections. I set a goal to…