Grabbin' a piece a "Pie": new doings & feeling the love

This morning, cellstories.net, a nifty cellphone/electronic device only publisher, sent my award-winning and Pushcart nominated story "Pie" out to subscribers (it's free, look for them on Twitter!). Daniel Sinker, the man behind this brave new medium, who describes himself as "the founding editor of Punk Planet magazine in another life," thought it was "great."

And on Valentine's Day (who can keep these goyische holidays straight anyway?), my story, "NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: THE HARDBOILED STRESS OF BEING SANTA (WHEREIN YOUR INTREPID REPORTER UNCOVERS THE TENUOUS CONNECTIONS BETWEEN BABY BOOMERS, RANDY GOATS, THE HARPER CONSERVATIVES, THE GUESS WHO REUNION TOUR, BRIAN MULRONEY’S GRANDKIDS, AND SANTA CLAUS’S UNFORTUNATE 2007 NERVOUS BREAKDOWN…)" went live on Joyland.ca. Montreal-Atlantic Editor David McGimpsey called it "hilarious," adding he "love[d] it."

Joyland.ca made CBC's Top 100 of 2008 and has been called "the go-to spot for readers seeking the best voices in short fiction."

Quill and Quire proclaimed Joyland.ca, “A savvy, sleek publication, devoted entirely to new short fiction...[that] has published marquee names such as Jonathan Lethem and Lydia Millet...The future of literary magazines is already here.”

According to Montreal's Hour, "Joyland.ca is an innovative, online publication devoted to new fiction," while Time Out Chicago has called Joyland "a lovely literary site that has a preoccupation with location...And so far, the work speaks for itself." So I'm proud to be part of Joyland (and of all the literary journals and reviews that'll have me. Not for me that Groucho Marx disdain for clubs that'd have me as a member!)

Karl Jirgens over at Rampike just accepted (in record time--1.5 hours!) my short creative non-fiction piece, "Aversion Conditioning, or Why I am Somewhat Conflicted about Poetry," telling me "Well, it's about time you got published in a gen-u-wine arty-farty rag like Rampike!...I think the piece is solid and very funny. Great stuff!" Rampike has been in business for over 30 years, Jirgens says, publishing the likes of Kathy Acker, Paul Auster, William Burroughs, Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, and Julia Kristeva.

And on or about March 9th, please drop by On The Premises where my short story "Father's Day," written from a prompt provided by Nancy Zafris at The Kenyon Review's 2008 writers' workshop, is due to appear, an honourable mention for their "Delicate" contest ("One or more characters have to handle an object, person, or situation that they consider 'delicate' (whether it really is or not). How well these characters handle things is up to you."). "I loved this story," co-publisher Tarl Roger Kudrick told me.

So it's been a busy couple of weeks around here, basking in the glow of all this love. And there's lots more to come, with new stories due out this year in The Binnacle, EarLit Shorts 5 (mp3 stories) The Nashwaak Review, The New Quarterly and Windsor Review. Not to mention my short fiction collection, The Meaning of Children...which I'm hoping to have good news about very, very soon...