3/22/12: Needle

Find my gritty crime short, "Mistake," in the latest issue of Needle. Use the code "marbooks12" to get 20% off.

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3/20/12: As Long As You Follow

I went to the grocery store this morning. This was strange, not because grocery stores are especially strange by morning, but because my mornings are typically reserved for writing, and other things that can be done while in a zombified pre-noon stupor. I'll spare you the details of how this came to be -- a story in itself, rife with unlikely things -- but the important part is that I was in the store this morning, forced there by circumstance.

While there, I was struck by the song on the in-store radio: "As Long As You Follow," by Fleetwood Mac. I hadn't heard the song in a while, and the groove hit me just right, sucking me in despite it coming from the radio in a grocery store. I was so enamored, in fact, that when it came time to leave and the song was only halfway through, I wanted to stay and listen to it.

Now, that was this morning. Between then and this afternoon, another long, unlikely chain of insignificant events unfolded, these culminating in my visiting a local pharmacy, some hours after my grocery shopping. When I stepped into the pharmacy, I recognized the song on its radio as the same from the grocery store that morning. Also, it was about halfway through, suspiciously close to where it had been when I last heard it, as though picking up where it left off.

(Note: My first thought on this was that both the grocery store and the pharmacy were subscribed to the same in-store-music broadcast and that this could possibly explain the song popping back up so soon in the line-up (if the broadcast was on a six-hour rotation, maybe). However, this says nothing of my uncanny timing, not only going to a separate store and hearing the same song, but hearing it seemingly where it was left off.)

(Note #2: To my recollection, I have never before heard "As Long As You Follow" on any radio, in-store or otherwise.)

(Note #3: As far as I know, there are no in-store-radio-broadcast guys conspiring against me.)

3/19/12: The Universe Recommends Kaopectate

For the last couple months, I've been on a new, powerful probiotic supplement. Among other side effects, probiotics can sometimes trigger diarrhea, as a sign that they're working. Well, today, I think mine started working.

It led me to wonder if I might need something to remedy this problem, this thought coming to me just before lunch. Then I sat down to eat, and since I study my word ledger when I eat, and today was no different, I opened my ledger.

The ledger's first entry was "kaopectate."

3/9/12: Dark Dispatches

Find my short stories, "Monsters" and "Hunt," in Dark Dispatches, a new anthology from Static Movement, depicting war with a speculative slant.

Amazon link