magazines

SF story “A Diamond in the Mind’s Eye” in The Colored Lens

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Speculative fiction magazine The Colored Lens published my short story “A Diamond in the Mind’s Eye” in their Summer 2017 issue #24. You can buy a Kindle copy of the whole issue here. The story itself just went live on the magazine’s homepage today; you can read it here.

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The story follows an explorer who has been tracking a legendary giant diamond across the galaxy. What he finds is more disappointing than he expected, and ultimately far more valuable.

I’ve published a few stories before, but this is my first paid piece.

Flashback: One poem in Flipside

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That time my poem “Cheated” appeared in Flipside #83, from March/April 1993. I’m not sure that’s how I originally had the spacing though.

Even cooler: John Brannon of Laughing Hyenas was on the cover, and there was a flexidisc single by Shonen Knife included in the magazine. I never played my copy of the record.

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Flashback: One poem in Flipside

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That time my poem “Alicia” appeared in Flipside #81, from Nov/Dec 1992. This piece is a true story based on a coworker when I worked at the American Psychological Association as an abstractor for their academic database. One of the nicest people I met there, Alicia endured the regular stream of attention rather graciously.

For those who never saw it, LA-based Flipside was a massive newsprint fanzine that chronicled underground music and culture. They ran two pages of poetry during the 90’s era when I was subscribing and submitting work to them.

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Flashback: Rubber Band Ball article reprinted in Utne Reader

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I recently discovered that my article on rubber band balls can be found on the  Utne Reader website. You can read “Rubber Band Balls: The Ultimate Collector’s Item” here.

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The article was first published under the title “The Joy of Rubber Balling” in my music fanzine Mole, issue #12, back in May 1999. It describes my obsession with creating and maintaining a rubber band ball. On the next page, I interviewed my friend David Craig about his own experiences creating a rubber band ball (see below). As with a lot of things, he got in on the trend first. The “director’s cut” version appears on my website here.

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Needless to say, I was rather shocked when Utne Reader picked the article up for reprinting, which they did under the title “Bandarama” (Utne Reader #101, Sept-Oct 2000). Especially nice: getting paid for the piece. In some way, a paycheck helped justify all the wasted time putting together a fanzine. Not to mention the time wasted assembling a giant rubber band ball. (Coincidentally, I found the images of the Utne cover and my article in an Ebay listing; strange that “Bandarama” was one of the sample pages!)

One of the major differences between the two printings was the title, and the omission of my subtitle. The more professional rag seemed not to like the vague innuendo contained in my version. It’s funny that for their website, they changed the title again.

Yes, you do see Vanilla Ice’s name in the lower left corner of the Mole cover. I interviewed him about an outsider art site in Homestead, Florida, called the Coral Castle. It featured in a promotional photo his record company provided with his comeback CD. Turns out, he was quite an authority on the place. But that’s another post.

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I still have that rubber band ball today, although I’m not as diligent about maintaining it. It’s gotten pretty furry with neglect, so I’ve been doing some serious re-surfacing with fresh rubber. It could still use a lot more bands. At this point the ball weighs 7 lbs 11 oz.