Brevity 29, the January 2009 edition, has hit the Web. I’ve got a story in this one, so I’m excited.
I’ve also still got a job, despite the carnage to the Seattle tech industry this morning. Good luck to anyone who may have lost theirs today. And if that’s not enough to make me feel grateful, this afternoon the police responded to reports of an armed gunman in the woods behind my kids’ elementary school. No one was hurt, but the school was locked down when Holly went to pick them up tonight.
Jesus. You gotta hope the dead don’t rise with the moon tonight.
Present Tense 
Hey Tim, I remember this story. A good read, and it looks great there on the Web. Congratulations!
And congratulations for still having a job. I assume this is the Microsoft layoffs that made the international news yesterday… This economic thing is going to hit a lot of people very hard.
I’m also glad to hear that your kids are okay after the scare. As my neighbor Olga always says when she hears stories like that, “What’s WRONG with people these days?’
Thanks, Sarah! I appreciate the kind words. I appreciate still having a job. I most certainly appreciate the false alarm at the kids’ school. I completely agree with Olga. What is WRONG with people these days? I have no idea.
Hey, Tim — thanks for visiting my blog and leaving your kind words re my Brevity 29 story. I guess we are fellow alumni now of a pretty cool group!
Your story, “Jimi Don’t Play Here No More,” is terrific. The prose is spare and honest, just the way I like it. I especially like the way you wrote the ending.
I also read your New York Times story from June of last year — painful/sweet — and very fine.
Re your comment on my story — we live on 100 acres out in the pine woods near Pensacola, FL. We’re restoring an old longleaf pine forest (not commercially viable, but priceless for wandering grandchildren and grandparents like my husband and me). The country folk around here are born storytellers; all I have to do is put on my “big ears” and listen carefully to have an endless supply of good stories.
Hey Beth, thanks for the kind words about my work. I am glad you enjoyed the ending of the Brevity story. I do think this makes us alumni, and a very fine group of writers we are. I hope you’ll consider writing a blog post for Dinty and I’m pleased to get a little insight into your work (advance copy?) here in the comments.
Speaking of comments, I really like what you have going on with the comments on your blog. I’ve never seen that before, but I have heard of extensions that offer threaded comment discussions for WordPress. Pretty cool!