Free Shock Totems! Run! Hurry! Flee!

For a VERY short time, you can get the digital version of Issue #2 and Issue #3 for free.  Yes, free.  You know how magazines always say, “Check out our mag and get an idea of what we’re about before you submit?”  This is your chance.  Hurry. Also, I have essays in each issue. I cried while writing both of them. You … Read More

Best New Writing of 2012

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I was on the short list for the Eric Hoffer Award.  Woo!  While the very worthy “Peep Show” by Louise Beech won the award, I made it into their Best New Writing of 2012 anthology.  I squee! I genuinely squee!  And why do I squee oh-so-genuinely? When I was in college, their Best New Writing was … Read More

Two Awesome Things

1) Jay’s running my reading of “Butterflies and Battleaxes” on his blog. It’s part 2 of the Williams Syndrome post for Rare Disease Day.  You can find it here. 2) You have the incredible opportunity to win a free pass to the San Francisco Writer’s Conference next week!  Hurry and enter now.

Let It Fall: A Guest Post About Coping With A Diagnosis

Did you know that February 29 is Rare Disease Day?  It’s also Jay Faulkner’s birthday.  Jay is a family man, editor, and friend who allowed me to do a guest post on his blog to raise rare disease awareness.  I’ll actually have a few posts there through the month, since my family and I seem to constantly hit the rare disease jackpot.  … Read More

Ten Word Review: Ghost Hunting

  Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Michael Jan Friedman Hawes obviously rules the roost. Finished in two hours. Fun! (Don’t you love how the title is vastly longer than the review?) To get a more in-depth look at the book, check out my review on the … Read More

My, Uh, 41 Books of 2011

My goal was to read 52 books in 2011. I listed the books here.  While I didn’t manage the whole 52, I did a few books better than last year.  It’s also fun to see my true crime/faeries/nonfiction phases.  This list does not include reading The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales to my kids 600,000 times.  Which it should.  … Read More

The Stokers

So apparently I was the last to know because I am off in my own little Mercedes La-La Land, but Demons has been nominated for a Stoker.  Woo hoo!  I’m so delighted to be part of that collection, and a Stoker nom is just too cool.  (Wait!  Correction!  Recommended for a Stoker.  Thanks to Ken for the correction.  I am … Read More

A Month of Letters Challenge

I came across the most delightful, charming thing.  Mary Robinette Kowal has has chosen to think of February as “The Month of Letters”.  During this month, you mail a letter to someone every day. How do you feel about this?  Eager?  Unnerved?  Daunted? I grew up making my own stationary and cards.  I mailed letters constantly.  A friend and I even wrote … Read More

Review: Aleera: Tainted Blood

I just finished Joseph Mead’s debut novel Aleera: Tainted Blood.  Aleera, the daughter of a demonic warlord and a succubus, is being tormented by a serial killer who leaves behind charred bodies.  While trying to track down the killer, she is constantly battling her own dark urges.  Will she be able to control the demon inside her when her life is at stake? … Read More