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About Me

I live in Roanoke, Va., with my wife Anita, a comical dog and a demonic cat. I'm an editor, writer, poet, artist, performer, not necessarily in that order. (In my day job I'm a newspaper reporter, though you won't see much about that here, because this is a play-space, or maybe a "craft exhibit" — unless of course, I'm making a podcast appearance .) I'm also a semi-regular (I consider myself a "supporting player") at Roanoke Underground's No Shame Theatre.
For almost a decade I've been editor of a poetry zine called Mythic Delirium , where I've published verse with science fiction and fantasy themes, some from folks like Ursula K. Le Guin, Joe Haldeman, Jane Yolen and all sorts of others. (And it's currently open to submissions; guidelines are here .) I have a new project, a fiction anthology called Clockwork Phoenix , just getting started. I'll tell more about that when there's more to tell.
I have 4½ books available on Amazon. Two are anthologies of fiction and poetry, a series I edited in 2006: MYTHIC and MYTHIC 2 . The stories and poems in the MYTHIC series take unusual approaches to myths, fairy tales, or fantastic archetypes (like dragons.) Two are collections of my own poetry: Disturbing Muses , a series of dark fantasy pieces based on the lives of modern artists; and Strange Wisdoms of the Dead , a survey of 10 years of my work which includes a little fiction (The Philadelphia Inquirer reviewed Strange Wisdoms and much to my delight dubbed it "poetry for Goths of all ages.") The half goes to The Alchemy of Stars , an anthology of Rhysling Award winning poems that I co-edited when I was president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association .
Over the course of what I sometimes with tongue-in-cheek call a "career in the shadows" I've as of this writing published eight books, 18 short stories and 180 poems. Most of these have been in out of the way places, but I've had stories turn up in H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror and Helix and poetry appear in Asimov's Science Fiction , Strange Horizons and in the Nebula Awards Showcase series. And I'm still pluggin' away.
If you send me a message here, don't be too offended if I don't reply right away; I've really got more Internet going on than I can handle. I have my own website, Descent Into Light , that's creepy-red-and-black like this page and goes into all the writing stuff in much more detail, with news, descriptions of my books, and other stuff. I also have a LiveJournal, The Plasteel Spider Factory , which is where I do my casual blogging. (Both of those weird phrases are taken from lines in my poems.)
I'll close with a couple of samples of things I have out on the web:
FICTION
" And then a millstone came along... "
" Gherem " (with Charles Saplak)
POETRY " Black Holes Hold Their Breath "
" Epochs in Exile: A Fantasy Trilogy " (with Charles M. Saplak)
" The Journey to Kailash "
" lis pendens " " Manifest Density "
" Miró's Mirror "
" Picasso's Rapture "
" Seventh Coming " (with Ian Watson )
" The Strip Search "

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Just about anyone (so long as you're a real person,) the quirkier the better. Fellow editors and artisans, but especially, of course, interested readers...

My Blog

Nebula nominaton and Neil Gaiman

This past month has been, without doubt, the biggest month of my strange little writing and editing career. First, my horror story "The Button Bin" (which I had somewhat despaired of anyone ever notic...
Posted by on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:59:00 GMT

"The Button Bin" on the Nebula Award preliminary ballot

My horror story "The Button Bin" is on the Nebula Award preliminary ballot, so I'm going to celebrate while I can. I'm in competition with 13 other really good writers, and only five will make it to t...
Posted by on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:20:00 GMT

Ending the year at the Library of Congress

Two days from now I'm going to be talking to a group at the Library of Congress (specifically (deep breath) the Library of Congress Professional Association's What IF ... Science Fiction and Fantasy F...
Posted by on Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:08:00 GMT

CLOCKWORK PHOENIX is out plus lotsa other stuff

Among other things, the launch of Clockwork Phoenix  has kept me extremely busy this past few months. The anthology has garnered great reviews in Publishers Weekly,  Locus and elsewhere, and...
Posted by on Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:18:00 GMT

THE JOURNEY TO KAILASH and THE HIKERS TALE

Norilana Books has just brought out my new poetry book, The Journey to Kailash, available in both hardcover and trade paperback. The book has its own website here, where, if you can endure it, you can...
Posted by on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:19:00 GMT

CLOCKWORK PHOENIX contents announced

I've spent the last couple of weeks sorting through the last of 1,300(!) submissions to pick which stories will appear in Clockwork Phoenix, forthcoming from Norilana Books. I should note that the lin...
Posted by on Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:12:00 GMT

New horror story online at HELIX

My new horror story "The Button Bin" has gone live online at Helix: Speculative Fiction Quarterly. I got the idea for this story about four years ago, but didn't figure out how to do it justice until ...
Posted by on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:02:00 GMT

Clockwork Phoenix officially announced

I'm going to be editor of a new anthology of offbeat speculative fiction called Clockwork Phoenix   the guidelines for it are here; and here's the official press release from Norilana Books, the...
Posted by on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:37:00 GMT