"Boston Noir" Book Review

My review of "Boston Noir" is up now on Mostly Fiction. The collection was edited by Dennis Lehane and is one of Akashic Books' Noir Series. This is the link.

While we're talking Boston, will someone please begin a petition to get the "What's the Best Way?" and "The Vallencourt Boys" SNL sketches online or on DVD? "The Best Way" was the game show about directions in New England that yielded the "pass eleven Dunkin' Donuts" and "there's a retahded kid sellin' fiyahcrackahs" jokes. "Vallencourt" was Adam Sandler and Kevin Nealon as two mushes with a cable access show. Both were spot-on Boston accent parodies.

Essay: God Was Magic

My essay, "God Was Magic," is in this week's Columbia Chronicle. You can read the whole essay online, here. Make sure to leave a comment about how I'm going to hell.

No word yet from Cell Stories about when they're running "The Bullets Were Losing," but it should be by the end of the calendar year. In the meantime, head to CellStories.net and sign up, for free. It's a service that sends a daily story to your mobile device, which they define as "Any mobile device with a WebKit-based browser; we've specifically checked iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android-based phones."
Honestly, that's a little bit over my head, but I'm not very tech-savvy.

Guns 'n' Roses "Chinese Democracy," A Four-Part Exegesis

All four installments of my part-by-part exegesis of the Guns 'n' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" are now up on Running Downhill. Here is a litany of links:

Part 1, Unnecessary Shredding - 9/2/09
Part 2, Modern...but Classy - 9/21
Part 3, Classic G'n'R Tropes - 9/29
Part 4, Capable Schmaltz - 10/20

Here's my last post on here about this.

Short Story "The Bullets Were Losing" In Cell Stories This Fall

Cell Stories is a Chicago-based website that sends daily stories to people's mobile devices. I was a little geeked when I found out that it's run by Dan Sinker of Punk Planet, an old favorite zine. Anyway, they're going to run my short story "The Bullets Were Losing" at some point in the next couple months. I'll update this once I know when my story runs, and in the meantime, go to CellStories.net to sign up for this free story service.

Essay "God Was Magic" In The Columbia Chronicle

I wrote an essay for a series of articles in the newspaper at my school. The school is Columbia College Chicago. The essay series is called Fact/Fiction. The paper is the Columbia Chronicle. I'll post more info as I get at. I feel like Peter Parker, minus the weeping.

Short Story "Deadly Nightshade" In Burly Bird 2

I wrote a short story called "Deadly Nightshade" and the folks at Burly Bird were kind enough to include it in their second issue, which was just released. Check out the Burly Bird site for more information.

Book Review: "Huge" by James W. Fuerst

I did a book review of the novel "Huge" by James W. Fuerst. It's young adult lit, but it's the perfect kind of YA - the kind that also appeals to grown-ups. The book is a riff on a hardboiled detective novel; the pre-teen narrator is a big fan of Raymond Chandler. As a mystery fan and a YA fan/aspiring writer, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. Read more about it here on Mostly Fiction.