Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semi-finals
Current mood: energetic
Category: Writing and Poetry

Got some exciting news this week!  My novel POSTCARDS FROM A DEAD GIRL made the semi-finals in the Amazon.com/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award contest.  That means out of 5000 entries, I'm in the top 835, and Amazon reviewers (that's you!) can download an excerpt for free and leave a review. 


Here's the link if you'd like to read/review my excerpt: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00122GTR8


Along with Amazon reviewers feedback on excerpts, Publisher's Weekly will be reviewing all of the semi-finalists' full novels, and by mid-February the top 100 will be chosen.  Wish me luck!


Peace

Kirk

Currently reading : The Raw Shark Texts By Steven Hall Release date: 06 September, 2007

10:13 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

First story in print!
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Writing and Poetry

Hello!

Just got my advance copy of the Fall issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine.  My short story "Salting the Walks" is inside.  They did a great job with the layout and the photos.  It looks really nice.  I feel like a proud papa.  The issue will be available all over Wisconsin in various bookstores around the state.

Also--this year's fiction/poetry contest winners will be reading at The Wisconsin Book Festival's "Best New Writing from Wisconsin People & Ideas 2007" at Avol's Bookstore, this Thursday, October 11th, 5pm-645pm.  Check it out if you're so inclined, and let me know how it goes.  Unfortunately I can't make it back from Colorado, but I'll be there in spirit. 

-Kirk

Currently listening : Writing to Reach You, Pt. 1 By Travis Release date: 20 April, 1999

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iKirk
Current mood: excited

I finally get it.  PCs are built to fall apart.  Macs are built to run.  The commercials are right; it's not just an ad campaign. 

Last week my Dell PC froze up for the last time.  At 18 months new, the motherboard's inability to regulate voltage caused a meltdown.  This, after five months of glitching, freezing, and spontaneously shutting down.  According to Dell's message boards, many folks had the same problem I had with the same part on the same computer.  Mysteriously, the problems ensued within days of the expiration of the 1-year parts warranty.

I wrote Dell over a week ago to inquire, and they've decided to ignore me. 

So like a good consumer, I've decided to switch teams and spread the good news.  The Dell brand has lost my trust.  And too much of my iLife has passed me by.  So bring it on, Apple.  Load me up with all your white electronics.  iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iMac, iTV, whatever you got.  I'm ready. 

To celebrate, I'm going to write the first iNovel, and it will begin like this:

Call me iKirk.

Currently watching : Pirates of Silicon Valley Release date: 30 August, 2005

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Weather Geek

I fully realize I'm a weather geek.  Given that my last blog was about hail, and this one is about torrential rain, I also realize that perhaps I should've gone into the meterological field.  Then I could blog about books and writing and music.  Well, like George Eliot said, "It is never too late to be what you might have been."  But in the meantime...

When I moved out west, I was honestly concerned that it might be too dry, too hot, too arid.  I thought there might be too much sun for my alabaster skin, that I might turn to ash from the exceedingly high amounts of UV rays piercing the atmosphere, especially at 6035 feet. 

What I didn't anticipate is torrential rain.  Every day.  For a week. 

We are currently experiencing what Colorado weathermen refer to as "monsoon" weather.  A pressure system sneaks up over the mountains and dumps like holy fury.  Now, I'm no mountaineer, but I did know that it's common for a thunderstorm to creep in for a quick afternoon shower.  Mornings are often sunny and dry, afternoons are cloudy and briefly wet, and evenings are clear and cool.  This week, however, mornings are sunny and dry, and afternoons turn to dark looming deathclouds that unleash sheets of rain and turn the skies to electric nightmares. 

I love it. 

Currently listening : Ride the Lightning By Metallica Release date: 25 October, 1990

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Hail, yeah!
Category: Travel and Places

Currently listening : Umbrella By Rihanna Release date: 04 June, 2007

3:25 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

The End of the World
Current mood: curious
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

I've recently been reading a lot about the Mayan long count calendar, how it ends on December 21, 2012. After thousands of years of accurate time-keeping, the calendar just stops. The end of time.

The Mayans apparently recorded time in great cycles, and according to their system, we are at the end of the fourth cycle. Our sun is getting tired, say the ancient ones, and it's ready to take the Big Nap.

This sparked my unhealthy preoccupation with reading about lost civilizations, astronomy, and the coming apocalypse. Pyramids. Stargates. Ancient warnings. The dawning of the age of Aquarius.

I've been reading books with strange titles. Fingerprints of the Gods. The Orion Prophecy. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.

It seems that the Incans and the Mayans and the Aztecs and the Egyptians and the Hopis and the Dogstar tribe are all in steadfast agreement that the end of the world is nigh. They've all known this for a long time. I didn't get the memo until a few months ago, or at least I didn't read it.

The more one asks questions, the more questions arise, so it gets a bit overwhelming as fascinating as it is. The pyschic Edgar Cayce predicted that in the years soon following 2000, both coasts would be washed away, and the Great Lakes would flood all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. That's bad news for my friends and family in Milwaukee. Not to mention LA and NYC. Good thing I recently relocated to Colorado, although that puts me in close proximity to the Yellowstone Supervolcano that is scheduled to erupt at any moment.

There are plenty of other doomsday theories to choose from...

Nukes.

Comets.

Crustal Displacement. Tidal Waves. Earthquakes. Massive Radiation.  NASA fully admits the sun will flip in 2012.

Even the New York Times is talking about the final days.

Luckily, a Golden Age is supposed to follow the chaos. The calm after the storm.  Heaven on Earth.

There is a school of thought that says the coming of the next great cycle is all about what you bring to it. Could be a devastating apolcalpyse full of death and destruction. Could be a new birth complete with sunshine and hope and love and new consciousness.

I guess if it's bound to happen, it's good to have something to believe in.

So...what do you believe?

Currently reading : Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date By John Major Jenkins Release date: 01 August, 1998

5:45 PM - 5 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Contest News
Category: Writing and Poetry

Hey-

Just found out some exciting news. My short story "Salting the Walks" won 2nd Place in a statewide fiction contest held by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. The story will be published in the fall issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas.  The contest was sponsored by Harry W Schwartz Bookshops.  The lead judge was bestselling author Charles Baxter.   

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful honor.

Kirk

Currently reading : The Road By Cormac Mccarthy Release date: 26 September, 2006

1:49 PM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

New story in HOBART

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know my story "Forever Girl" is in this month's HOBART literary journal.  It's about love and carnival rides.  If you get the chance, check it out, as well as the other stories and interviews in this cool lit journal out of Ann Arbor. 

Have a good one,

Kirk

9:44 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Great Gatsby

It's been a very long time since I've read The Great Gatsby.  What a difference a decade makes.  Such a gem.  Love the language.  I think this Fitzgerald guy just might make it...

Currently reading : The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald Release date: 30 September, 1999

11:41 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Last Seen Leaving

That Kelly Braffet sure is a fine writer.  Last Seen Leaving had me hooked throughout.  An excellent study of loss and yearning and hope, told at a frantic clip.  Go read it, you'll love it. 

Currently reading : Last Seen Leaving By Kelly Braffet Release date: 02 November, 2006

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