Another Short Story Accepted For Publication.

Good news, folks. My short story "Hotline Bling" has been picked up for publication for an anthology titled "Final Masquerade," coming soon from Lycan Valley Press. It's also tied for the biggest payday I've yet to receive, so plus one for that, too.

"Alex works as a volunteer at the suicide prevention hotline. He likes to think he's pretty decent at talking people down from the ledge. Soon, though, the pressures of the job get to him, and he begins to wonder what would happen if he forces his callers to take the other way down..."

Keep an eye on this one, folks. It's up there with some of my favorite stories I've written. And it's one for one, as far as publishers go. So it can't be all bad.

Until next time.

Why I Deactivated My Facebook Account, And Why It's For The Best.

I've written a lot of words in my life. Hundreds of thousands. Of course, while this might seem like a high number, it pales in comparison to what I might have written were it not for the vindication a popular online presence brought me.

I used to care more about getting a lot of likes on a status as compared to crafting the perfect sentence.

I used to care more about people commenting on my selfies, telling me how silly I am (depending on the pose and the context of the photo, of course) and how gorgeous my smile (and my eyes, let's be honest) is as compared to caring whether or not my plot lined up.

I used to follow posts pertaining to dramatic situations religiously, seeing who burned who, who wanted to fight who, who was fucking whose baby's mama rather than creating situations like this for my characters (or maybe, hopefully, something a little bit classier).

When I should have been writing, I was checking Facebook, staring at the same memes over and over.

When I should have been reading, I was checking Facebook, scrolling down my news feed mindlessly even though I'd read everything on there a few times already.

When I was dropping a deuce, I was checking Facebook instead of reading one of the many books downloaded to my Amazon Kindle app or playing my Gameboy Advanced Emulator (TMI; I know. Don't care, though!)

I didn't want to write a huge blog post about this, so I'll just end with this. Facebook is the ultimate roadblock to production. You, the reader, might disagree with me. But go back to the last couple of days. Think about how much time you've spent looking at the screen of your phone, tablet, or laptop, reading a bunch of shit that, in hindsight, you would admit to not giving a shit about. I'm not saying everyone is addicted to the self-centered vindication and the feeling of socialization (albeit falsified) apps like this can bring.

But I know I was. What can I say? I'm a born attention whore. I love the spotlight. But in order to make my writing shine, to ascertain a routine with no outside distractions, to force myself to focus on the hobby that means the most to me, I've given up the spotlight so that I could better huddle in my lonely corner, cut off from the rest of the civilization, pounding away at a book none of you will read, anyway.

Until next time, folks.