A little news

Just a brief hello to indicate a few things.

One – I am back around. I was away for awhile on a winter vacation with limited internet access, but I’m now home and back to the posting grindstone again. (I know, I’m only posting once or twice a month here, but, it still takes time, and I am out of pre-scheduled posts now.)

Two – I have taken up a position as a reader with Orca, a literary journal “based” in Washington state, but staffed by people from various bits of the United States, Canada, and we seem to have at least one person from across the pond as well.

I’m still getting acquainted with how everything works (and who everyone is) but so far I’m enjoying the chance to review short story submissions – some of them have been not great, but I have also been lucky enough to be able to early read a few stories that have been quite excellent – and I’m sure there are more to come!

One of the things that I learned earlier this week while reading for Orca is that there are a lot of merperson stories floating around out there seeking publication right now. This has resulted in me abandoning a merperson story idea I had myself, and my next post here on this blog will probably be a somewhat mediocre-merpoem, because it’s already written, but I don’t want to bother magazine people with it, particularly now that I realize how many merpeoples they are reading about!

Three – While on vacation I wrote forty poems. Now, some of them were terrible, and they are going straight to the recycling bin. A handful are, I think, fairly decent, and there’s one in particular that I am really pleased about. I am hoping that over the next few months I will be able to find publication for a few, and when I do, I will of course share that news with you.

Four – does anyone know what that ^ is? I found quite a few of these beach-creatures while vacationing in southern California, but no one to tell me what they are.

Until I learn different, I’m going to keep calling it a sea-cone-snail.

Want to see a somewhat gross looking beach-creature?

I believe it’s a “sea hare.” Apparently, in some parts of the world, some sea hare species are enjoyed at the dinning table.

You’re welcome.

Hope you’re having a nice day!