Because I’m, like, you know, a writer and stuff

A new publication! Over at New Christian Voices, my humor piece Bread And Beauty is posted. It’s a short essay I wrote in response to a corporate magazine touting how I could save time by giving them gobs of money for convenience foods, and which also contained tidbits such as “dry skin is the worst problem of the winter.”

So all you folks who are struggling with heating bills, dealing with ice on the road — heck with that, all the homeless who have nowhere to stay when it snows? Your problems pale in comparison to dry skin. Really. The magazine said so.

This piece kept changing shape and size but I like the form it’s in now, and I’ve learned two things about humor based on its travels through the magazines:

1) keep a very tight focus when writing humor; one idea is enough

2) rant like crazy

Once I rewrote it with those two objectives in mind, it sold immediately. Please go over there and tell them in the comments how much you love it read it. Thanks!

A new award! I found out yesterday that my novel Seven Archangels: Annihilation placed fifth for SFF novel in the Preditors and Editors Readers Choice Awards!  That means I get a nifty little award graphic, and a nice attagirl. “They like me! They really like me!”

A third thing: I got mentioned in Our Sunday Visitor! No kidding! Author Mary Lou Rosien wrote me to let me know she loved my book and that she’d mentioned it in her catechesis column! She said that Mary’s “praying with cookies,” (ie, by making her baking prayerful) was a good example of active prayer. I’m thrilled. Really. I need to write back to her and thank her.

There is no fourth thing. Count your blessings. I’m having a good time writing ♥My New Book♥ and haven’t been submitting anything else. I’ve tried following up on some old ones, but no response there. It’s okay. Three good things are enough for today.