Those Fantastic Lives officially goes to press later this afternoon. I’m excited and ready to see this collection that I’ve worked on for such a long time come to life.
Read MoreIt’s hard to believe 2021 is just past its halfway mark. It’s been a good year in many ways, I believe. It’s been hard, too, for sure. But each passing year offers its own distinct challenges. As the year’s progressed, I’ve been grateful to be able to rely on the constant company of art.
Read MoreAwaiting the first round of feedback from a book, I imagine, is pretty stressful for most writers. It certainly was for me. Thankfully, though, I’ve received extremely generous first reviews.
Read MoreJohn Brandon, an author I’ve followed for many years, is back with his newest offering, Ivory Shoals.
Read MoreOne of the most anxiety-starting aspects of the whole book-release journey is getting blurbs from other writers.
Read MoreI was hoping to come across a good psychological thriller this summer, so I was glad when my editor at Chapter 16 approached me about covering Carter’s debut.
Read MoreMy early summer reading is focused mainly on weird/magical realism/speculative story collections.
Read MoreI don’t know how normal it is for a writer to have favorite stories from their own catalog of work, but “What They Left Behind” is near the top of my favorite stories. I’m really proud of it each time I go back through it.
Read MoreMonica West’s debut novel, Revival Season, is sure to be one of the books of the year. It’s a beautiful novel about faith and family.
Read MoreMy debut collection of short stories, Those Fantastic Lives, will hit bookstores on October 1st, and I’m excited to announce that it’s officially available to preorder from your favorite bookstore!
Read MoreAll good things come to an end, and my MFA residency at Queens is over. It’s bittersweet for sure. I love my time with my writing community. My peers and teachers are some of the kindest and most encouraging folks I know.
Read MoreWith October 1st getting here quickly, my published unveiled the cover earlier this week. I really, really like it and feel like it captures the stories inside really well.
Read MoreI’ve loved Ghost Parachute for a long while. They are one of the best flash fiction journals around, and they’ve been kind enough to publish multiple works of mine over the years.
Read MoreFor all my book lovers out there, don’t forget it’s officially Independent Bookstore Day. If you’ve been wanting to order something to read but haven’t, today’s the day to finally give in and treat your self. (And your shelf, am I right?)
Read MoreWith the Oscars being this weekend, I thought it’d be the perfect time for me to list my favorite movies of 2020. I really liked the films released this year. Honestly, I thought 2020 was one of the strongest years of movie releases in a good while. I really liked the intimate character studies the year brought us, and the documentaries were truly wonderful. Comedies, too, had an especially good year.
Read MoreIt’s been a while since I’ve read a horror novel that fully captivated me. The last couple that fulfilled that horror need for me were Shaun Hamill’s A Cosmology of Monsters and Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. When I was approached by the good folks at Chapter 16 about covering Chapman’s Whisper Down the Lane, I was stoked to give it a read.
Read MoreAs noted in my February reading recap, I enjoyed Nathan Elias’ debut collection, The Reincarnations, quite a lot. So much so that I reached out to Southern Review of Books to host an interview, and they kindly agreed. My interview with Nathan is live today. In it, we talk about, among other things, transformation, reappearing characters, and magic.
Read MoreI was planning to watch WandaVision because it looks extremely strange, but my wife informed me that the series is a part of the larger Marvel Universe, which I knew very little about. I’d seen a few of the movies early on, but action movies aren’t really my thing, generally speaking.
Read MoreWinter in Alabama is usually pretty uneventful. There might come a dusting of snow. There might be a week where temperatures are in the twenties. You get the point, I’m sure. Anyhow, this week’s been interesting. Where I live received almost an inch of ice, and just last night, we received almost six inches of snow.
Read MoreReading an apocalyptic novel during a worldwide pandemic might seem sort of nuts, but I was all for it when approached by the good folks at Chapter 16 to review David Arnold’s latest YA novel, The Electric Kingdom. Arnold’s latest certainly has its fair share of darkness, but this is a book that reminds us of goodness and decency—and how we need it in moments of peril most of all.
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