So, not the traditional sort of mask here. I’ve been growing a beard – for no reason really. It started out as shear laziness – not wanting to shave over the winter holidays and just went from there. Sometime in the new year I hit that point where I actually had to start doing maintenance on it: trimming it … Read More
Heaven is Full of Writers and Werewolves
Well, my friends! The time has finally come! Remember when I hinted to this anthology? Well, John Skipp just officially released the Table of Contents, and I fell over in a dead faint of delight. I am so humbled to be in such a great anthology with writers that I secretly stalk in my dreams. Or not so secretly, anymore. THE COMPANY … Read More
So What’s Your Excuse?
I really, really want to write every night, but it ain’t happening. I try to get in five or ten minutes during the busy day, but it’s nigh impossible. Why, you ask? Because school is out and my home has turned into a miniature Yoo Hoo bar fight. Spindly arms and legs are everywhere as the children tussle over who … Read More
“Be Mysterious: Writers in Masks” features Amie Boudreau
I love Masks, and mostly African Masks. I became fascinated with African art and culture in college when my chorale did a piece called O Sifuni Mungu and I fell in love with the sounds of African music. While living in New Orleans I fell in love with the art I found in the open market stalls … Read More
Small Town Girl
I had two funerals in three days this week. I found myself in my husband’s home town. There was no smog and I could see the stars. I awoke to the sound of birds, cows, and sheep. Cotton floated through the air. I wore shorts, low pigtails, and didn’t have a stitch of makeup on my face. I sat on … Read More
The Curse
My friend John turned me on to this song by Josh Ritter today. I think it’s exquisitely lovely and heartbreakingly sad. In other words, I think that it’s perfect. I love this marriage between happiness and tragedy. This is the type of feeling that I would like to invoke in my writing.
Deer In The Headlights: An Interview
Once upon a time there was a nice British bloke named Steven Pirie. We were in an anthology together that butchered our names mercilessly: I was something like Merbcebes and he was Seven. Thus a friendship was born. He’ll be Seven to me for the rest of our lives. Anyway, Seven interviewed me on his blog. It was my very first … Read More
“Be Mysterious: Writers in Masks” features Aaron Polson
I’m the tall kid, second from the left, with the lousy interpretation of Maximillian, the killer robot from The Black Hole on my head. The date: March, 1981–my sixth birthday party. Seven months before the picture was taken, a helicopter took my father to a hospital to have part of his brain irradiated because of a malignant tumor. … Read More
Adding A Happy Chapter
I took a week off of the Williams project because I needed to. I needed to dance around and fill my mind with butterflies and glitter again instead of hypodermic needles and the smell of antiseptic. But we just spent two days testing with some of the leading authorities of Williams Syndrome, and my son exceeded all of our expectations. … Read More
“Be Mysterious: Writers In Masks” Features Kaolin Fire
Kaolin Fire wears many masks, day in, day out. Few of them are physical, but many are real–and some that aren’t particularly tangible are far the more powerful for that. Hopefully this mask is one of the further-removed from reality, but it’s one of his favorites. He finds it’s very imposing in-person. Outside of his primary occupation of software development … Read More