I am a semifinalist for a thing. The odds are low that I'll get it, but they specifically request that I not share this news around -- particularly social media. And that reminded me that there was a time when I posted on Livejournal. 

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
- Moved to Texas
- Saw productions of my work where my only role was playwright
- Officiated a wedding
- went to the doctor as an adult
- rented a car

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I ran more than 4 times per week on average. So, yeppers on that ( Read more... )

So

The good news is that the rejection letters have gotten more and more polite and personal in the last year.

I'm told, "I wanted to let you know that we read and discussed it, seriously considering it for publication" often now.

So that's progress. 

Keseberg had a temper. So he was disliked ( Read more... )

Fuck James D. Houston.

Here's the background: the Donner Party is a complicated web of misfortune. It resists simplification.

James F. Reed survived, for example, because he was exiled from the wagon train early on. He killed John Snyder, a loved teamster, many, many miles before the Party was trapped in Truckee, and it was either be strung up or ( Read more... )

Thanksgiving with Susan Straight and the Sims girls.

Susan in Austin. It's a Thanksgiving miracle!

I
had
NO
FUCKING
CLUE
what 
I 
was
doing
when 
I 
wrote
My Avisia Winger.

How the hell did I get away with it? 
How did I get away with all the bullshit?
Random, unexplained symbols... 
Well, I did have a reason for those -- so people would project their own meanings on the symbols, and I guess that worked. 
Still. What the hell was I thinking with some of these ( Read more... )

One of my former students is now in the MFA program at Indiana University. IU is publishing my short story 'The Creeper.' Kevin is a poetry reader, so he didn't have anything to do with it.

It's just awesome.

Blew the entire day watching videos and reading coverage of the outrages at the Occupy UC Davis protest. 

NICE GIRLS is getting a production in Houston by a small theatre company.

I'm told, and I love this, that they will have live chickens.

Theatre world is amazing.

***

Regarding issues with food and body: Eden, if you read this, you were right. And things are better.