Just to give you pause on even giving cursory attention to the results AI gives you when you're searching on-line, consider this false information regarding "After the Death of the Ice Cream Man," my 2011 novel:

Just started a newsletter... consider this an open invitation to my underground lair. Free to subscribe to... just enter an email. confessions-of-an-underground-writer.beehiiv.com

Allow people to be flawed. This is my advice for fiction writers and for life in general.

Ugh, people are going to be watching “Lonesome Dove” now that Duvall has died. Good movie with an incredibly stupid cottonmouth scene. Cottonmouths do not congregate in “nests” like that, and you wouldn’t die in minutes if one bit you.

YouTube suggested a video for me: “How to Avoid Rattlesnakes.” Besides being an easy thing to do, there’s also the whole LEARN MY INTERESTS thing. Avoid them? Me? No thanks.

Whatever doesn’t kill you has friends that will.

You can order all of my books (including the latest, ONLY BATS KNOW LOVE) through Ann Patchett's wonderful bookstore, Parnassus Books, in Nashville, thereby supporting two indie entities at once. If you’re looking for hand-crafted literary fiction…. parnassusbooks.net/search?q=Tod...

Grab some Cox at Powell's. (...surely you know what I mean....) www.powells.com/books/search...

Looks like it’s official: the novel I started in November is finished (until later edits, of course). My first “detective story,” though think Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye,” not “The Maltese Falcon” or something. Time for a break.

In between writing novels (and being a bookmobile librarian), I also write and record music. This is the latest album. Bear in mind I’m not an audio engineer and I play everything by myself… which is why there’s some awkwardness. So be it, I’m having fun. tomico.bandcamp.com/album/weapon

Today I got my 1099 from Amazon with my total 2025 royalties, AND had my two-year follow up appointment with the radiology folks… and only one of those things contained good news. Kidding, I appreciate everyone who’s ever bought something of mine.

Can’t wait to get this girl back today. She’s going to get the best care possible from us as she recovers from the jaw surgery.

Dropped Sophie the doggo off at the hospital this morning, for her surgery. Poor kid shouldn’t have to go through this. Tumor removal, necessitating part of the jaw being removed, then reconstructing. Several hours of surgery… and goddam it sucks caring for things.

Just released a new album of tunes… there’s a bit of tension over the current state of things on it, and it includes some of the angriest stuff I’ve written. But it’s also fun and rockin’ and… well, anyway… new music from yours truly: tomico.bandcamp.com/album/weapon

We need healthcare workers, we don’t need the Gestapo. We need freedom, not fascism. We need education, not idiocy. We need culture, not cretins. We need peace, not people Bored of Peace. We need wilderness, not AI. We need community, not division. We need nature, not development.

My wife, looking at the coolers while we were in line at the store yesterday: “I’m not only clueless about modern pop culture, but I don’t know what any of these waters are.”

Hand-crafted fiction from yours truly. (Not sure why it's not all available on Bookshop, but these ones are good, if I may say so myself....). bookshop.org/beta-search?...

Pass the butter!

Rustic Italian bread ready for its cloche-up. (That’s Heidi’s joke, by the way… a rare pun from her, so enjoy it while you can).

There’s nothing that begs to be killed more than mosquitoes and Nazis.

“Think as I think,” said a man, “Or you are abominably wicked; You are a toad.” And after I had thought of it, I said, “I will, then, be a toad.” —Stephen Crane

ML Lincoln’s wonderful documentary “Wrenched” is streaming free on Amazon Prime right now. All about the modern environmental movement and its inspiration from the one and only Ed Abbey. Great people in this thing, and inspiring stories. Made me remember certain things I cannot talk about publicly.

If ICE captures me, for whatever reason (real or imagined), I most definitely will be shouting something about “succulent American democracy.”

Here’s a pic where Sophie doesn’t look so suspicious.

Turns out Sophie will be going through some stuff shortly. She has a tumor on the inside of her mouth, which is benign in the sense that it doesn't metastasize but is still something which spreads... and sure enough, it's not only in the closest tooth but also in the jawbone itself.

Thinking about what Hemingway thought about fascism... and how what he said about McCarthy is applicable to far too many of our contemporary “leaders.” "There is nothing wrong with Sen. Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin which a .577 solid would not cure.” --Papa Hemingway

Never forget what those khunts, led by the biggest khunt of all, did on this day back in 2021. A desecration. A tragedy. An un-American display of idiocy and hatred.

Watched Altmans “A Wedding” tonight… another under-appreciated gem from the master. Quite fun.

Chocolates from the glasses place have… glasses. Delicious nearsighted bastards.

Adorable Sophie.

It’s just another night, people. Go to bed early. Wake up bright eyed. Create something. Do it again the next night. And the next. And….

Starting to get feedback on this collection of shorter fiction. I’ve also recently entered it in a contest, which is unlike me… but if nothing else, more eyes are always a good thing. bookshop.org/p/books/only...

I should write more plays... only because I look like a guy that writes plays.

Finally a return of snow. Winter without snow is like summer without flowers and grass. #wisconsinwinter

Interesting read on “Contempt.” Funny how Godard decided to use Bardot’s nudity at the request of the producers… only, not as they had expected. www.criterion.com/current/post...

Criterion didn’t have “Contempt,“ so I put on Fellini’s “Juliet of the Spirit’s.” Not Bardot- or Godard-relate, of course, but what a tone and what beautiful colors. If only color worked as well in books as it does on screen. “Gatsby” aside, I can’t think of anything else that made much of color.

RIP to Brigitte Bardot, movie star, screen beauty (perhaps THE screen beauty of the 60s), and animal rights activist. "Contempt" is in my top five favorite movies of all time. A singularly great film from Godard, influential on my own storytelling in ways I could never fully articulate.

I can't remember what the present was, unfortunately. And oh to have Christmases like that again.

Handcrafted literary fiction from the covers on down, available via Powells. You want a real person writing real books, look no further than yours truly. www.powells.com/books/search...

I hope none of the fonts in my books are DEI fonts. These trump people are unserious khunts.

Get the new book through Powell’s! Would make a nice gift for the reader in your life... or for the person who has everything except a fine collection of strange fiction with some awesome bat genitalia on the cover. www.powells.com/book/only-ba...

Any Madison, WI area folks can stop at great little indie bookstore Mystery to Me and snag a copy of "The Keeping of Little Things," my odd little psychological horror tale. www.mysterytomebooks.com/product/keep...

Find my books on Alibris! (But for the love of Todd, don't pay $61.49 or $38.40 for "Beast!" What the hell! I'll send you a free copy of the original edition if you ask nicely....) www.alibris.com/booksearch?m...

My new collection of shorter fiction, ONLY BATS KNOW LOVE, is starting to become available in places other than Amazon, for those who'd like to avoid that place. For instance, you can order it through Madison's legendary Room of One's Own Bookstore: roomofonesown.com/book/9798311...

Here's an old "Unhuggables" blog post I did about our first trek to see the Sandhill congregation along the Wisconsin River. This was 2013... and that time we were on the very opposite side of the river from where we were on Friday, when we were on Aldo Leopold Foundation property.

The last story in ONLY BATS KNOW LOVE is the novella "Silverfish." A mystery about a young woman named Mattiebelle Harris who comes to work in a private library around 1950. Will the secrets she knows about the library's past work their way into the present, like insects destroying a fragile book?

The seventh story in this collection is "Possession," about the rediscovery of innocence... told by a demon. Find it in ONLY BATS KNOW LOVE, my first collection of fiction (four short stories, four novellas), out now:

Take my intellect, leave only art

The sixth story (and third novella) in this collection is "The Widow Story (Digressions into Ghostland)." It's a tale of love. And lost mothers. And regret. And ghosts, of a sort. And not knowing ourselves well. There are many types of ghosts. And Ghostland is usually found inside your own head.

The 5th story in this collection is “The Looming,” about a father who every day visits the hospital to see his mysteriously ailing daughter… and who gradually comes to realize that someone (or something) else visits her in the night…