A couple new poems and a short story
Hi all — thanks for reading another of my infrequent dispatches. Most of my writing energy that isn’t going into my job or local bird updates is directed at writing new fiction, slowly creeping and crawling towards a book-length collection. While there’s a long way to go, I’ve enjoyed working with a group of really talented fiction writers who have taught me a lot and who typically have more interesting insights into my characters than I do.
Yesterday I published my first short story in years, “Birds of Prey.” It’s not really destined for the collection I’m working on, because it’s in a more satirical vein than I’m intending with the rest of those stories, but I would say that it does kind of live in the same world. I’m pleased with the one-line summary the editor and I worked out for this piece: “A birder learns his place in the food chain.” If you’ve enjoyed my writing about messy, semi-wild anthropogenic landscapes and also like neo-noir crime dramedies, you might like it. It’s kind of ridiculous, to be honest! Read it here.
I’ve also put out a few new poems this year, and really need to get back to sending more out. The latest two are more physics-oriented than I usually go for. You can read “Electron Orbital: Wednesday” at Pictura Journal, and “Radius” at Abraxas Review. Despite the title, “Radius” manages to shout out Phragmites australis, so I guess it’s not entirely mathematical.
Well, that’s all for now — hopefully back sooner than later with a report (and plenty of pictures) of how year 1 of a backyard pocket prairie is going. In short, pretty well!
