[image description: A clothbound notebook, pen, and a cup of coffee on a white wooden table.]

I love any chance to use Southern idioms, so here goes: I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

I’ve been writing a ton and it’s panning out well!

Recently, I had an essay published in Reckon South about reclaiming my surname from the local celebrity/ambulance-chasing lawyer in my hometown. Folks in the southeastern US who have seen his billboards all over the interstate will especially appreciate this essay. And I imagine I’ll get a lot of mileage out of it because every time someone asks me if that TV lawyer is my dad, I can send them this link and quickly set the record straight!

I also had a short story published in The Wild Hunt! It’s called “Ghost Story,” but don’t worry––it’s not scary, just entertaining. I was so pleased it found a home because I don’t often write short fiction. I tend to get carried away and crank out a whole novel, so this is actually the only short story I wrote all year.

So imagine my surprise when I found out the magazine’s editors nominated it for the Pushcart Prize! My face looked like the scream emoji the whole time I read the email and announcement. It’s my first Pushcart nomination, so I didn’t see it coming!

The Pushcart is an anthology series that collects the best essays, poetry, and short stories from small presses around the world every year. It’s been around since 1976 and the only way to get in the anthology is to first be nominated by an editor at a magazine that published your work. I’m not sure when I’ll find out if I made it into the anthology, but I’m thrilled just to be nominated because magazines publish dozens, if not hundreds, of pieces every year and I’m overjoyed that my one improbable short story stood out enough to be nominated.

Plus, a bunch of famous and enormously talented writers have made it into the Pushcart anthologies over the years, so it would bode well for my career to make it in there.

In other improbable writing news, I’ve been writing a TON of poetry lately. Essays are my bread and butter, so similarly to short stories, I only write a handful of poems every year. I managed to go an entire 11 months out of the year without writing one, then December hit and I’ve been a poetry-writing machine! Perhaps at this point, I should just acknowledge that my brain is weird and my creativity is gonna do what it’s gonna do.

If you’re wondering about the novel I started in September, it’s still in progress. It’s requiring me to do some research (fun research! like carnivorous plants!) so it’s taking a little longer to finish the first draft. But I’m having fun with it and I like where it’s going.

Several people who read “Ghost Story” have encouraged me to expand on that and perhaps turn it into a novel, but I keep telling myself one novel at a time! Don’t get distracted! I’m not ruling out the idea, though.

As for the memoir, Redneck Palestinian, it’s still going, just slowly. This is the book that’s closest to my heart and I know will be the thing I’m most proud of, but it’s also what drains me emotionally. I’m not giving up, I’m just having to mind my mental health and ration my sadness in this weird time.

So that’s what I’ve been up to in my writing life! I hope this encourages you to keep going with your writing. You (really, truly, seriously!) never know what’s going to happen.