Once in a while, I can channel my inner comedian and write something somewhat funny.  My new poem "Tinged" is one of my successful forays into comedy, and it was published a couple days ago at Defenestration, a literary magazine dedicated to humor.  I had a lot of fun writing this poem, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

I think I need to learn how to juggle better.  My husband can actually juggle for real - it entertains our kids.  But I try juggling, and the balls hit four people at once (and I'll only be using three balls).  It takes talent to be so uncoordinated.

And this is a metaphor for life, of course.  Not my best one, I know.  It's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't been posting much, contrary to my long-ago New Year's resolution to be better at keeping up with things.  So I figured I'd pull back the curtain a little bit and talk about why there have been crickets chirping here.

First of all, I entered #PitchWars again.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a FREE competition for authors looking to get help with their manuscripts.  A number of published writers generously donate their time to help their mentees quickly edit their manuscript.  Then, after the manuscripts are as polished as they're gonna be, they're shown to dozens of agents from some of the top agencies in the country.  It's a great competition, and every year it gets bigger and bigger.  This year, there were about 150 mentors and 3133 submissions.  Results are announced on August 24th, so I'll be biting my nails up until then.

I've had several short story and poetry acceptances recently.  They'll slowly be added to my "Writing" tab, but I've had to do some rewrites to get them in publishable condition.  Now, they're shiny and ready to go!

There are a couple more author interviews in the works, one with a poet and one with a novelist.  More information to be forthcoming.

​I've been reviewing books like crazy for Bewildering Stories.  My roster for reviews is pretty full for the next couple months, although if you have a book you'd like me to review, please feel free to contact me.

A new issue of Reader's Abode will be coming out September 1st, a compilation put together with a very talented group of writers from around the world.  I am the token poet in the issue, with two poems to be published - one humorous and one horror.

There's one other HUGE thing I'm working on, but since it's in the works, I'll leave it at that.  But it will be AWESOME and EPIC and a whole bunch of other adjectives, too.  The big reveal is coming soon!

And that's everything (so far)!  Hope you're having a great weekend, and I will be back before long with (hopefully) more news.