Swamp Ape Review, the national literary journal founded and produced by the MFA in creative writing students at Florida Atlantic University, recently announced the winner of the inaugural Justin Waldron Memorial Prize for Innovative Prose. My hybrid piece “A Halifax History of Curse Words” was chosen as the 2024 recipient of this esteemed prize.

Read the piece here: https://www.swampapereview.com/a-halifax-history-of-curse-words

The legendary St. Louis nightclub Off-Broadway played host to the city's wacky band of quirky funsters Hotel Faux Pas on December 16, 2023. As usual. I was joined onstage with my musical comrades Brian McClelland, Karl Dodson and Chris Brown for an evening of classic HFP hits, returning to the venue for the first time since 2001. 

May, 2023: Gifts of the Divine, is now available from iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and hundreds of other streaming platforms. The new record features 16 side-splitting, knee-slapping, hum along ditties guaranteed to befuddle church elders and conservative PTO members.

Songs include "I Taught the Cat to Do My Taxes," "All the Boys Want to Read Her Sonnets," "Are We in Love Or Is This Pittsburgh?," "Bring Me the Corpse of Pope Formosus" and many more.

Bringing the songs to life, these talented musicians added their inimitable contributions: Chris Brown on drums; Vic Hoffmeister on bass; Karl Dodson on electric and acoustic guitars; and Chris Livesay on keyboards and viola.

I graduated from Lindenwood University on May 6, 2023, with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. The maturation in the two-year program is evident in these before-and-after photos.

The program allowed me to workshop and hone my novel, write several new short stories and flash fiction pieces and share feedback and ideas with likeminded creative individuals all over the country.  

Folk-pop-quirk-rock quartet Hotel Faux Pas played an auspicious public show on November 5, 2022, at the historic Gaslight Theatre in St. Louis. Joining me (vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin, ukulele), Brian McClelland (vocals, bass) and Karl Dodson (vocals, electric guitars) was newest member Chris Brown (drums). We plan to make this an annual event, so watch out for a fall '23 date announcement. 

The literary journal Book of Matches chose my flash fiction story "Blaze Johnny Two-Elk" for inclusion in its Issue #6, published September, 2022.

This experimental piece is comprised of four two-hundred word sentences.

Read it for yourself: https://www.bookofmatcheslitmag.com/post/issue-6-of-book-of-matches-is-live