Biennually...

Hey, Three People that Read this Blog (hi Mom!)

When I first started this blog with the highest of hopes and the best of intentions, "Getting updated once every other year" was not part of its mission statement. But this thing called Life (ok, ok, this thing called "Laziness", which starts with the same letter) got in the way, and here I am, posting after a two-year hiatus. In that time, I could have a) committed a financial crime, been sentenced, served out my term and be back home now, b) finished writing my novel, c) erected the Eiffel Tower, d) trained my recalcitrant dog to stop barking at strangers.

Sadly, none of these things were accomplished by me. (Well, not sad about the financial crime, although I'd like to think that if I committed one, at least I'd have some money)

I did have a story, "Why Does the Manatee Sing?" published in the anthology Daughters of Icarus, put out by Pink Narcissus Press, and I'm quite proud of it. It is part of a series of stories I like to think of as "Mothers and Monsters", which are all stories about motherhood in the realm of fantasy. "A Nice Jewish Golem" is another entry in this set. Some of them are funny, but most of them are tragic in one way or another, because sometimes being a mother is HARD (and also because I'm just morbid and I enjoy writing tragedy).

A beloved friend of mine says that everything I write is autobiographical, and though I publicly disagree, I have to admit that she is probably right. "Manatee" started out as an anomaly in my collection: a nod to fatherhood, and how often it is undervalued in our society. I wanted to do a role reversal and write about a society where one parent is often assumed to be uninterested in child-rearing, relegated to the fringes of parenting because of gender.

It turned into something much more personal when I was separated from my own children temporarily, and the desperate loss and alienation I still feel when I can't be with one of them. Whenever I re-read this story (and let's face it, I'm exactly the kind of author to re-read her stories instead of writing new ones - O procrastination, you are so like a bad boyfriend that I cannot break up with) I have to get up and hug my boys. They don't know why I'm interrupting them and they find it immensely annoying, but that's just too bad ;)

And that's my update. I have a new story coming out next week, and a post ready to go for that. My soon-to-be-famous writer friend Angus was the one that pointed out that I really must update my blog if I have a new story coming out, and he is correct, as always. The new story has nothing to do with mothers, but everything to do with magical thinking, so there you go, it's another story about me!