When your Muse finally speaks ...

I've published my "A Concise Summary and Analysis of The Mueller Report" at my blog - Trump demanded Comey's pledge of loyalty and the FBI Director refused - read all the salient details tedmorrissey.blog/2025/09/23/a...

It's always a good idea to share the Master's wisdom. It is no coincidence that we find ourselves where we do as a nation and that the number of people who read (and read well) is at its lowest point in decades (if not more than a century). Nonreaders are easy prey for propagandists.

Our #podcast is always loaded with interesting issues regarding #writing, #publishing, #reading and #teaching - always with a few laughs along the way. Do your brain (and your soul) some good and check out A Lesson before Writing. twelvewinters.com/a-lesson-bef...

I published "A Concise Summary and Analysis of The Mueller Report" in 2019, but Amazon removed it from circulation in 2024. There is renewed interest in reading my little book that distillates the 450-page Mueller Report to fewer than 80 pages -- so I've made my book available at my blog for free.

The Press had to purchase a batch of new ISBNs today, which means that since establishing Twelve Winters in 2012 I've published 50 books in hardcover and paperback, plus digital and audio editions that don't require ISBNs. Two of the new ISBNs are earmarked for Jan. 2026 title releases.

I'm ecstatic to report that Grant Tracey's latest Hayden Fuller Mystery, A Shoeshine Kill, is beginning to attract that sort of readership it deserves. Murder, missing drugs, plagiarized manuscripts -- all set against the backdrop of the 1972 Summit #hockey series between #Canada and the #USSR.

Check out our typically free-range conversation in Episode 27. This issue is just one of the many topics we cover - plus a discussion of a newly published award-winning short story. twelvewinters.com/a-lesson-bef... #podcast

We had a fabulous time discussing Episode 27's featured story, winner of Boulevard's Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers - Mary Elizabeth Dubois's "To Believe in the Ubiquity of Animation." We love it; we don't know what it's about'; but we love it all the same.

A boxful of good reading. The paperback edition of A Shoeshine Kill includes four bonus short stories. Get 'em while they're hot!

Episode 27 of our #podcast is available! twelvewinters.com/a-lesson-bef...

We had a blast recording Episode 27 of the #podcast and discussing one of the most complex stories we've featured yet. But I've been on the run since we signed off, so watch for the video and audio soon.

Just arrived: a box of paperback editions of Brady Harrison's A Journey to Al Ramel. The paperback includes an Afterword and an Interview. www.amazon.com/Journey-Al-R...

The #podcast kids are threading the needle on a ludicrously busy schedule and recording Episode 27 later today - watch for it to drop on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts in the next 24 hours. Meanwhile check out some previous episodes twelvewinters.com/a-lesson-bef...

We're hitting the halfway mark of our first fall term--which means there's still tons of time to join us in our vibrant program. If you're a writer thinking about taking the MFA plunge, there's no better time than to start this October!

The steady publication of my sonnets to Mary Shelley over the last few months has sparked (pun embraced) an interest in my 2018 novel Mrs Saville, a sequel to #Frankenstein. I've alluded to the novel (and its critical accolades) in my contributor's note to the poems.

Brady Harrison's fiction is finding more and more readers with the release of his debut novel, A Journey to Al Ramel -- which has deservedly returned attention to his award-winning collection The Term Between. Both are available in paperback editions that include bonus material.

Take a breath and take a break, and read a great piece of flash newly published at Twelve Winters Journal - "Ralph and the Jackalope" by Louis Fiset. twelvewinters.com/fiset-ralph-...

The seniors at Bluffs H.S. were good sports, trying their hand at deciphering Old English and comparing passages to identify what various translators of #Beowulf drew from the original and what they added via artistic license. They were a lot of fun to work with.

I had a terrific time talking with seniors at Bluffs H.S. about #Beowulf today -- going back tomorrow to talk specifically about translating Old English to modern English. The students are attentive, talkative (in a good way), and brimful with great questions.

Our schedules are so tight planning an episode of the #podcast feels like the plot of an Ocean's 11 movie, but (fingers firmly crossed) our intention is to record no. 27 next week. Meanwhile check out 26 if you haven't already (or listen again).

Pulling together some notes for my talk with high school students later in the week about the poem #Beowulf. One thing I want to stress is the poem's tightly controlled artistic symmetry -- something that is impossible to see by just reading excerpts in an anthology.

The #podcast crew is more than just talk. Check out these terrific new novels by Grant Tracey and Brady Harrison - both available in beautiful hardcover editions as well as paperback editions with bonus material.

It may be my birthday, but here's a gift for every reader: Grant Tracey's new novel A Shoeshine Kill is out today in paperback. Besides adding a new installment to his Hayden Fuller Mystery series, this edition includes four Eddie Sands short stories. www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPX977YD

This session at SNHU I'm teaching a familiar course wherein students establish an author website and social media accounts to promote their writing. Many writers struggle with the conflicting ambitions of wanting readers but also wanting to stay out of the public spotlight. It's not easy to do both.

Teachers of #writing -- consider using portions of our #podcast episodes in your #classroom (in-person and virtual) to stimulate discussion and reenforce concepts. I'd also be delighted to arrange a discussion with your class. #editing #publishing #teaching

Brady Harrison's fab debut novel, A Journey to Al Ramel, is now available in paperback, which includes an Afterword and an Interview that are unique to this edition. www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPMN9L74

My article about a previously unidentified scribal error in Cotton Vitellius A XV (i.e., the #Beowulf manuscript) continues to attract scholars far and wide. I don't know that I've convinced a lot of medievalists, but I've at least gotten their attention.

Super thrilled to have a new short story out today in Poetries in English Magazine. "The Poet in Room 12," written in both English and Spanish, is my Lowry-Coover-Joyce inspired story. Editor Sterling Davis says, "We value risk, send us your most subversive, avant-garde work."

Brady Harrison's terrific adventure novel A Journey to Al Ramel will be out in paperback soon - complete with bonus material.

I read a lot of Baudrillard when working on my dissertation, and I've realized that, twenty years later, many of his theories have leached into the dystopian fiction I've been writing. A half century ago he saw where we would be now in terms of mass media, irreality, and alienation.

The Hemingway-inspired piece that was published yesterday was the second such story by Brady Harrison - the first was in Twelve Winters Journal in 2022. Check out his response to "White Hills" - twelvewinters.com/harrison-the...

Brand new fiction from Brady Harrison - who is working on a collection of stories that are in conversation with classic Hemingway. Twelve Winters plans to bring out the collection next year in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of The Sun Also Rises. northamericanreview.org/open-space/2...

The wait is over. Grant Tracey's new Hayden Fuller Mystery is out and available in a beautiful hardcover edition. It includes an updated Hayden Fuller Timeline as well as a craft essay by Grant, a master of the hardboiled detective genre.

My #trauma theory book continues to be the Press's best-seller, and the text of the talk I gave based on the book (Dec. 2024) has attracted over 90 readers at Academia.edu, especially from the Middle East and Africa. The book elucidates techniques for recognizing signs of trauma in written texts.

The Master reminds us that great writing can make the implausible plausible. The reader can be distracted by the wonder of the words.

I've been invited to unlock my word hoard regarding "Beowulf" and share some thoughts with students new to the poem. Should be a lot of fun.

A reminder from the Master that it is the art that matters -- not the audience.

You know it's been a good writing session when you end by quoting from The Faerie Queene. I continue work on my sci-fi project, which I think of as "Fragments from Satellite Desert." A new fragment is forthcoming in Black Sheep Magazine: Unique Tales of Terror and Wonder.

The link to my Mary Shelley sonnet "Reprisal" in the August edition of The Poetry Lighthouse. In this sonnet, I quote from Mary's journal regarding her trip to France and ultimately Italy. www.thepoetrylighthouse.com/poems/reprisal

I'm honored that The Poetry Lighthouse has published two of my sonnets to Mary Shelley in its August issue. Here's a link to "Secrets." www.thepoetrylighthouse.com/poems/secrets

Grant has written numerous insightful craft pieces, many of them available online. An excerpt from this craft essay will be included in the soon-to-be-released hardcover edition of A Shoeshine Kill.

Shelley Jackson is a writer I've admired for decades. In fact, she is the model and inspiration for my made-up author Elizabeth Winters, a central figure in my novel The Artist Spoke.

To his credit, Grant decided his new Hayden Fuller Mystery needed some significant tweaking, which delayed publication by a few months. But the even better book will be available soon.

Þær wäs häleða hleahtor; / hlyn swynsode, // word wæron wynsume. [Among and around the warriors a pleasant din developed: music, laughter, convivial conversation.] It's worth remembering that the Beowulf poet was telling his tale of a terrorized communal hall to an audience inside a communal hall.

The featured story of Episode 26 is by Colleen Mayo, whom I had the pleasure of meeting earlier this summer at the short story conference in Killarney, Ireland. What a nice surprise when The McNeese Review landed in my mailbox and there was a newly published story by Colleen. #podcast #shortstory

My short novel continues to attract a reader or two. One recently emailed, "It’s not just a novel. It’s a dirge for a world where people actually read ... I mean honest-to-God reading: getting lost, transformed, wrecked, and reborn inside a story." Thank goodness a few sympathetic souls remain.

Catch the latest episode of our #podcast -- we are writers, editors, publishers and teachers talking about #writing, #editing, #publishing and #teaching.

Our new #podcast episode has dropped on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Among other free-ranging topics we discuss Grant's new film and Brady's new novel as well as the immortal question: To gloss or not to gloss? twelvewinters.com/a-lesson-bef...

Read Grant Tracey's interesting and insightful commentary on his crime noir story "Another Summer's Reading" -- recently published at Twelve Winters Journal. twelvewinters.com/tracey-comme...