i wrote this piece long ago + @matchbooklitmag.bsky.social was kind enough to give it new life, which somehow suits all this year-end wistfulness. grateful to anyone who spends time with it 🤍

Baking something🧁

So far today I've done some reading and writing. No arithmetic though.

Sometimes I pace when read. At one end of my path, a cup of coffee, which I always stop to take a sip of like I'm passing a baton in relay.

I like some Cormac books just fine— and lots of people I love, LOVE him — but I’m so bored by the “your art should drive you to suicide” romanticization. I want short stories, and novels, and art, that drove the artist to joyful exaltation.

Eating pretzels, drinking beer.

Welcome to December 26 through December 31, where everything is made up and the points don't matter.

15% off everything in our website with code MALARKEY at checkout. You can get one of the last copies of the first edition Hair Shirt, with a bonus @yoadrianididit.bsky.social poem on the French flaps. malarkeybooks.com/store/hairsh...

all X-R-A-Y subs will be open on... friday ! january 2 ! at noon ! arizona time ! subs will be open until we reach our monthly caps -- we tend to reach those caps in like 30 mins to an hour. we open for subs every month on the 1st. thank u for considering us !

2025 was the year I upgraded from a stress ball to a stress rock.

Christmas morning Mabel 🐕 🎅

It's time to read @aaronburch.bsky.social's "Home for the Holidays." xraylitmag.com/home-for-the...

Santa Mabel 🎅 🐕

Even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer got rejections before getting into his dream journal.

Want to help a small press and get some good reading material? $5 for the Malarkey digital sampler! malarkeybooks.com/ebooks/malar...

After this old fashioned, I'm going to go watch Ernest Saves Christmas. 🎄 🍻

Krampus is kind of like Santa's Wario.

Today, @farewelltransmiss.bsky.social published my Springsteen essay on death, manhood, and wondering what your grandparents would think of your queerness. farewelltransmission.net/2025/12/fast...

Thrilled to appear in @thecitronreview.bsky.social Many thanks Elizabeth de Arcos and JR Walsh. And double thrilled to be pub mates with the amazing @mattkendrick.bsky.social citronreview.com/2025/12/22/b...

Our Winter Issue is ready to go! citronreview.com Join us for the journey.

Mabel in cookie form 🐕💙

If you listen carefully to the wind you can hear it: Best of luck placing this elsewhere.

This picture of Mabel 🐕 💙

My bday was yesterday. For belated bday present, please consider donating (or at least sharing). Folks are welcome to match my $50! Love.

Happy Solstice; Issue 34 of MoonPark Review is here! moonparkreview.com/issue-34-win...

Mabel and I watched the winter solstice sunrise this morning 🌄

I don't always drink cocktails at lunch, but when I do it's out of a holiday stegosaurus. 🦖 💙

It's almost the final Friday of 2025. Wild year, bad and good. One personal good: becoming an author. Boxcutters is a collection spanning genres, styles, eras. Oddball lit, weird horror, sci-fi + more. Feast is a novel, a deep sea body horror kaiju adventure in the belly of Hobbes' Leviathan.

I've officially become someone who puts their dog's name on every gift they give 🐕

My holiday baking list so far 🧁

Our books don’t fit neatly into any category, genre, or scene, but they fit just fine into your mailbox! malarkeybooks.com/store

Whenever I'm in a groove, feeling like I'm writing something good, it's less a one-way mirror, me looking in but my characters unable to look out, and more a screen door, the breeze passing through.

I always make sure to tell my dog I'm proud of her at least once a day.

www.identitytheory.com/about/micro-... @identitytheory.bsky.social

Today's the day! I have a little essay in here about watching Night Gallery as a kid. This delicious anthology would make a great holiday gift. Thank you Grace R. Reynolds, Wendy Dalrymple & Alison Flannery. And thanks of course to @brigidsgatepress.bsky.social 🖤

Honored to be in the latest issue of @southerninreview.bsky.social. Definitely get yourself a copy to read all the amazing work. Link to issue: secure.touchnet.net/C21706_ustor...

Reading in the morning, reading in the evening, reading at suppertime!

🐕 💙

Sometimes I like to sit in a booth with a beer and hope everything will work out 🍻

If only I could learn how to pace and drink coffee at the same time.

New dark humor micro featuring a cliche killer thegorkogazette.com/2025/12/05/f...

Making kringla, and their shape always reminds me of that random S we all drew in school.

💙🐕

Our Dec issue is now live! It's our last issue of the year, and it's super sized! trampset.org

🍻

Good advice from Natalie Goldberg.

Reading a short story a day keeps myself sane.

O, pale Moon, key to Sun, here you are! Can you see? #62 is here! New writing by 20 writers, and visual art by Andrea Damic. gonelawn.net

Happy to have an essay from my forthcoming collection up @literaryhub.bsky.social today! "The time a library lends, I suspect, is a little like love: the more it gives away, the more comes back to it in kind."

My best friend 🐕💙