Thank you to Peter Markus for his editing wizardry. Without his guidance, this piece would not have been possible. Also, thank you to the fine folks at The Used Furniture Review for reading and for giving this guy the best Thursday morning he’s had in a long time. To my readers: my gratitude. Stick with me. It gets better.

My wallet was stolen on the bus. I sat down, smoked a cigarette, called my wife. We never found it. Stepped back on the bus, was in a different city. I needed to write this out and here is the meditation. I’m brainstorming ideas for a few novella length projects. This one has potential to be developed. Thanks to the EMPRISE REVIEW editors for making this one possible.

Special thanks to Peter Markus for pointing me in a mighty fine direction. This one, “unfisting,” is live now at elimae alongside great pieces that you should be reading. I’ve been respecting elimae since I started sending out stories and have been flipping out over that old “Goat’s Eye” piece by Eugene Marten and some Brian Oliu—returning to them weekly for inspiration or just to get my mind tweaked, my hopes crushed by so many skillful others. Can’t shake off the goodness I feel now. I hope you enjoy the story.

A new piece, Ugly Mouth, is up at HOUSEFIRE books. This piece was written using their homegrown constraints, which are always some of the best, most blissfully mind-warping constraints and the results—well, you’ll see—the results are this little tale about a heightened France and a woman we all know we will one day become. Maybe. 

I wrote this piece while deep in a Stephen Graham Jones workshop, but kept this one private—wrote it on the side. Years ago, fresh out of high school, I delivered furniture, spent time (with permission) dropping things off at important people’s houses when they weren’t home and always wondered what if something was in there waiting for me … what if that innocent boss of mine was hiding something. The result of that paranoid delusion is this story. Thank you, Mustache Factor. I grow my mustache for you.

Short, Fast, and Deadly, indeed. This one is about mutation and identity, two of my favorite themes. Thank you to Joseph A. W. Quintela for his keen sense of taste.