Falling Star Magazine, The Deep Freeze

Already suffering from the post-holiday doldrums. January and February are always depressing in Maine, but when the temperature is consistently in the single numbers and below zero, it gets old quickly. Here is a picture of my family during the holiday season.

Cold but joyful, right? I can't post a photo of us now. We're all frozen solid. Not really, but let's just say we're not smiling as much as we were during the holidays. At least, I'm not.

I do have good news, though. I received an email today from Falling Star Magazine, telling me that they would like to publish my short story, "Date Night at the Drive-In". It's a story I wrote in July 2011, two and a half years ago, right after I finished my novel Bobby's House. It's the raunchiest short story I've ever written, and I really didn't expect it to get published. It's a good story, though, and well written, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. That's number 14. I need to write more short stories, I'd like to eventually publish a book of my published stories.

Here's my column from last week's Sanford News. It's about all the cars I've had over the years, and how most guys would buy a new car first after winning the lottery.

Listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash's first LP, trying to get inspired to write. I just read Graham Nash's autobiography, Wild Tales. It was really good. After this album I'll listen to a Buffalo Springfield record. Who knows, I may end up writing another book about a commune.

My 7-year-old son Sam's quote of the day, after my cell phone rang: "Wow, that gave me quite a fright."