May 2022

I started and finished reading Emma J. Gibbon's book of short stories; Dark Blood Comes from the feet. It was a great read, with excellent writing and some very scary tales. She's a local Maine author and a librarian in Topsham, and the book was featured prominently next to my first book, A Good Meal, at my local independent book store Quiet City Books. The proprietor and expert book slinger, Courtney, is a huge supporter of local authors and has excellent taste in books.  


This month another book getting my attention is by Warren Ellis of the Dirty Three and one of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds. It's called Nina Simone's Gum. It's about him, the creative process, and a little piece of Nina Simone's Gum that he, in the throes of madness or genius, ran to the stage after she performed her set, grabbed the gum, and wrapped in a towel she had used to wipe the sweat off her face, stuffed them both in a plastic tower records bag. He has been protecting them ever since.


For a lighter read, I picked up a fresh copy of the great Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions for a reread. His writing is so fun and deep, complicated, but seemingly effortless at the same time. 



I finished the work organizing the novel I have been working on. I had read through and broke out the scenes, and this month I did the work to physically break out the scenes. This allows me to move on to the next phase of the editing process. Editing, rewriting, and deleting the scenes that don't add to the story. It's much easier to do this when broken out into smaller pieces. I will not write anything else until this story editing is complete. I want to give this to Jen, complete and tidy, because she will create some illustrations for it. 


No rejection yet on the short story I submitted to a magazine last month.

This is the latest update from the submission page.

QUEUE POSITION 472

RESPONSE TIME AVERAGE 26 days

DAYS UNDER REVIEW 26 days

I think it will take a little bit longer until I find out.


 Lastly, for fun, I have been watching some old horror movies. Below is a quote from the classic Piranha. 

"What about the goddamn piranhas?"

"They're eating the guests, sir."

-Piranha (1978 Film)


It's almost summer, the sun's hanging out much later in the day, and soon the lakes will be warm enough for swimming. It'll be tougher to stay focused on editing, but I have a plan and a goal. Hopefully, that will reduce the distractions.


This is a video of the hundreds of bees buzzing around the flowering crabapple tree at the bottom of my driveway. After a few months of Maine cold rainy spring, official warm spring is here. 



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