Pure Slush Anthology

Pure Slush Books from Australia has published tall...ish, a volume of short stories, essays and poems.

The anthology is edited by the legendary Matt Potter and includes work by Paul Beckman, AJ Huffman, Jennifer Fliss, Shayla Hawkins, Gary Percesepe, Jolene McIlwain, Larry Lefkowitz, Susan Tally, Nancy Stohlman, Adina Sara and others.

My own contribution, Hawaii, may be the dumbest story I've ever written. How, I can hear you asking, could he choose the dumbest from among so many deserving candidates?

You can purchase paperback version HERE

You can purchase the Kindle version  HERE

FIVE From Pure Slush

Pure Slush Press has just published FIVE, an anthology of short fiction and poetry in celebration of its fifth year. The book contains work by a whole slew of writers who have appeared in Pure Slush during the last five years.

Susan Tepper, Corey Mesler, Mira Desai, Paul Beckman, Phillis Ideal, Andrew Stancek, Jessica Clements, A.J. Huffman, Walter Giersbach, Len Kuntz, Joanne Jagoda, Matt Potter, Sally Reno, and myself are among the writers represented.

My own contribution, Cinco de Mayo, is a short, tragicomic tale of events unfolding at a Cinco de Mayo party hosted by a successful veterinarian at which the only Mexicans present are members of the Mariachi band.

An eBook version will be released soon, but FIVE is now available in paperback ($11 plus shipping). To order FIVE in paperback click HERE.

Pure Slush Reading

A somewhat eerie photo of the readers from last weekend's Matt Potter / Pure Slush reading at Arts at the Armory in Somerville. Left to right: Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz, Todd McKie, Gloria Garfunkel, Paul Beckman, Susan Tepper, and a light-struck Matt Potter.

Matt Potter Book Launch and Pure Slush Reading

lll SATURDAY, AUG. 29, 3 PMIlll

Matt Potter, writer, and editor of Pure Slush, has taken to the road with a series of Pure Slush author readings in Germany and the US. There was a reading in Berlin recently and, after this Boston event it's on to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and San Francisco. The even will also celebrate the launch of Matt's new book, "Hamburgers and Berliners," published by Červená Barva Press. Matt will read, of course, and he's invited some Pure Slush authors from the Boston area to join him. Guest readers: Timothy Gager, Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz, Gloria Garfunkel, Susan Tepper, and myself. Sponsored by Červená Barva Press and Pure Slush.            

lllARTS AT THE ARMORY, 191 HIGHLAND AVE., SOMERVILLE, MAll

Welcome to the Lit Bulb Festival

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Lit Bulb Festival    new international writing 2015

Here in a cozy corner of the interwebs is my story "Thurgood," selected for inclusion in Lit Bulb, an online festival of writing from around the world. Be sure to check out a day-by-day schedule of events and links to other writers' work on the Lit Bulb Festival site. Thanks for dropping by, and help yourself to fried dough, cotton candy and a turkey drumstick on your way out.

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Thurgood

  

Jenna is a good woman, but she has a bad cat, and because I’m with Jenna, so do I. We have a bad cat together.

The cat’s name is Thurgood and he’s big and gray and mean. When Jenna tries to brush his coat, he hisses, bares his teeth, squirms from her grasp. When I push him gently off the bed he jumps back up and rakes his claws against my arm. I look like a goddamn junkie.

When I moved in with Jenna I wasn’t too crazy about her having a cat, but it seemed a small price to pay for being with Jenna. Now I’m not so sure.

Thurgood wrecks everything. He scratches up all our furniture. Our chairs and tables and our sofa look like something you’d give to Goodwill, but that’s where they came from in the first place and I doubt they would even accept the stuff now. It would be nice to have new furniture, but with Thurgood ripping the hell out of everything, what would be the point?

Thurgood has—get this!—diabetes, so we spend a fortune at the vet. That damn cat gets better medical care than Jenna and I do. I haven’t had a physical exam in three years, but Thurgood sees a doctor once a month. He eats better than we do too. Jenna’s a vegetarian, so we eat a lot of lentils, carrots, and brown rice. Thurgood’s on a special diet too. Seafood.   

After we pay the landlord and the veterinarian, after we buy cans of seafood for diabetic cats and tofu, rice and vegetables for ourselves, there’s nothing left over for fun, forget about new furniture.

I wish it was just me and Jenna, lounging on our new Ikea sofa, sitting at a table from Crate and Barrel while we eat a meal containing actual meat, cuddling in a stylish, queen-size bed, leafing through magazines in comfortable leather chairs from Pottery Barn. 

For once, I’d like to get up in the morning and not trip over the cat, not have to open another stinking can of his greasy seafood medley, not have to listen to that awful thrumming sound he makes.

I wish stupid Thurgood would die. I’m a terrible person.

Everything Is Good

After a couple of trips to Canada and Maine we're back at home enjoying a string of warm summer days and cool, autumnal nights.

Just sent four new stories off to Matt Potter at Pure Slush. I'm to be their "Featured Author" for the month of October. I've only just recently gotten comfortable telling people I'm a writer, now I'm an author?

Matt's a whirling dervish and a damn fine editor.

Past and future Featured Authors at Pure Slush include Len Kuntz, Gill Hoffs, Claudia Bierschenk, Christopher Allen, and Marcus Speh.