My old and painfully bad story “Roses” appeared in Necessary Fiction

Steve Himmer was looking for “the earliest story you’re willing to share without revising.” As I explain in my introductory note:

I wrote “Roses” in 1995–6, soon after I started taking writing workshops at Penn State University. My primary interests then were poetry and flash fiction, mainly because I’d yet to write anything longer than 500 words. I didn’t know much about making stories, so everything I wrote that year is an overly precious, roundabout attempt to communicate some tidbit to the reader. Thankfully, I soon lost interest in this kind of stuff; all that remains is that I still fuss too much with my sentences.

The story is here; enjoy!

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What to Wear During an Orange Alert? (August reading)

I will also be reading, next month, at the series “What to Wear During an Orange Alert?” Friday, 19 August, 6pm, at The Whistler (Logan Square, Chicago).

This is an older photo, and the window display changes a lot. It's all white at the moment. But there will probably still be two bikes parked outside.

Also reading will be Steve Roggenbuck, Brett E. Gallagher, and Keith Ecker.

And before that, there’s an Orange Alert this Sunday, July 17th at 6pm, also at the Whistler, and featuring Peter Schwartz, Jesús Ángel García, Barry Graham, Lindsay Hunter, Steve Himmer. I wish I could go, because Lindsay’s a lovely person, and Steve seems very nice, and Jesús is an online friend whom I’ve wanted to meet for some time now. And I’m sure the other two fellows are nice as well. But I’ll be out of town.

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