A few pieces of good news today, all leading up to some additional news about my writing life that I’ll announce later this week: ♦ Living Arrangements was named a category finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. ♦ I will be heading to one of my favorite places — Portland, Oregon — for a week [...]

I was so distracted this week that I failed to commemorate Living Arrangements’ recent one-year publication anniversary. My first book has been out in the world for a full year — a year that, in some ways, feels like it zipped by in no time at all. But at other times, it feels very long [...]

Last night I was on my way out the door to meet my writing buddies when UPS delivered a package from my publisher. Inside, I found this: My gold IPPY medal for Living Arrangements. I had never seen an IPPY medal in person and assumed they were tiny, like the kind you could sew on [...]

For the low, low cost of $1, you can get: “The inside story of Jekyll and Hyde ten years later, a 10-year old dresses as dead poet Sylvia Plath for Halloween, and why you should not to have sex with Machiavelli’s dwarf. Plus more Kriesel poems, cartoons, and Spanky and John go to the movies.” [...]

On Saturday morning, I’ll be trekking over to the East side of Cleveland for Loganberry Books’ Author Alley event. Author Alley is part of the Larchmere Festival. The festival’s website encourages attendees to “Celebrate your independent spirit with dozens of local merchants and indie vendors of kitsch and collectibles. This is a street fair with [...]

If you ever get the chance to have an actor give a dramatic reading of your work, take it! Seriously, it’s fantastic. At least it is when the actor is Blair Leatherood and he gives a pitch perfect reading. He read my story “Q&A at the Film Fest” and I was amazed by how he [...]

Rosebud Book Reviews has posted a short and shiny review of Living Arrangements. Reviewer John Lehman compares the book to “an old Gershwin tune that has specific, personal memories attached. Once you read the stories you will never quite be able to get them out of your mind.” The review also includes claims such as [...]

Stuffing too much paper into the toilet. Wondering who’s on first. A soldier crouched in the dust. A beloved old copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. Slipping down a muddy slope. Ski lessons in jeans. Caramel, you old smoothie… Those are snippets from the memories some of you shared in this post when you entered [...]

Living Arrangements is the book of the week over at Fiction Writers Review. That means three readers will win free copies of the book. All you have to do to be eligible is follow FWR at @fictionwriters on Twitter. And in the spirit of short story collection giveaways — and Short Story Month itself, which [...]

When Living Arrangements was published in November, I contacted my local Barnes & Noble to verify that they’d ordered some copies of the book. In response, B&N told me they could not and would not order the book because it was listed as “non-returnable” in their system. They would only order a copy if a [...]