Someday I’ll tell you what it’s like to be married to a genius writer guy. But for now I’ll just share a little bit of his work. His name, btw, is Pinckney Benedict. He doesn’t have a website, a blog, or a Twitter handle. He does have a Wikipedia page. If I say that his …Read More

Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving Fiction Friday, dear readers. Since today is also kind of a holiday, I couldn’t resist giving you an extra-special treat. John Hornor Jacobs’s story, Old Dogs, New Tricks, reached out and grabbed us by the collective throat here at Surreal South central, and wouldn’t rest until we put it in the book. Seriously, …Read More

What a blessing it is to have talented friends. When I called up J.T. Ellison to ask if she would write us a ghost story for Surreal South ’11, she said “yes!” immediately. And what a story it is. It’s not just a ghost story, it’s a deliciously gruesome demon story. Yet, there’s so much …Read More

I like my horror with a certain amount of…elegance. I don’t mean that I require diamonds, silk, and pretty words with my scary stories. Okay. I do like pretty words. Words that evoke images that tell a story in themselves–a kind of circular beauty. (Speaking of stories, Surreal South ’11 is going to press today! …Read More

I can hardly believe that we’re working on the third volume of Surreal South: an Anthology of Short Fiction. The series started when a writer/editor at Press 53 asked Pinckney if he’d be interested in writing a craft book for them. When  Pinckney told her that he had an idea for a collection of surreal …Read More

There are writers out there who wouldn’t edit an anthology if you paid them a huge sum of money. When we did the first volume of Surreal South in 2007, Pinckney and I had lots of enthusiasm, but little experience. Our work had appeared in several anthologies, and I remember thinking, “how hard could it …Read More

These days, my husband the writer, creative writing prof, gun nut, and all-around genius guy Pinckney Benedict doesn’t spend much time on the web (with the exception of some office hours in Second Life). So I feel privileged that he agreed to do a post for Octoberguest! If you write or read, you should check …Read More

Next week is my big appearance with Joyce Carol Oates at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference! Any advice? I have 25 minutes to talk, including a brief reading from CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS. What to wear? Do I have time to lose five pounds? Have a little eye work done? Get a hefty dose of …Read More

The delightful Answer Girl invited me over to her place today to talk about writing and one of my favorite books, Margaret Atwood’s, The Robber Bride. I can’t even imagine how many times I’ve read it through–often picking random chapters, a few pages at a time. She’ll have other folks there throughout the week. This …Read More

Saturday’s signing at Barnes & Noble was terrific! I was even treated to an eight stanza recitation of a poem one man had written for his three year-old daughter. Since he purchased a book, it was kind of like a little literary salon, right there in Barnes & Noble. Like a moron, I forgot to …Read More