"ONE NIGHT" To Be Published

I just received the galley proof for ONE NIGHT to be published in NIGHT TO DAWN MAGAZINE Issue 24. Looks great and more details will follow.

The business end...

The business end of writing seems to be taking up more and more time. In a way this is good because it means there is actual 'business' to attend to. After all, it is nice to be paid. But a colleague just brought up the more insidious side of business, that is lawsuits.As a writer do you incorporate? This is a litigious society. It truly is. Any comments would be appreciated.

An Easter Poem

Yes a poem for Easter 2013 even though Easter is the 31st. I thought I would just share it early after all I see a lot of folks are already decorating for it and the stores actually put their Easter merchandise out last September. I actually wrote this is 2002 and its been sitting in a file: EGG ROLL by Joseph J. Patchen copyright 2002 by Joseph J. Patchen. Hey you have to get that stuff in...anyway: EGG ROLL Over the field the children flow with their baskets at their sides. Searching for those eggs that seem to know exactly where to hide. Some may be blue, some may be white, but never are they brown. So be wary, little children, where you step, because some things are better not found.

You Like Your Rats Alive And I Like Mine Dead

I was told by someone that my use of dead rats in a story is too over the top. I was told that the rats should be live and scurrying about rather than dead and rancid. I was told that by using dead rats I am somehow offending readers who love animals and who are in favor of animal rights. Yeah? Well its not like I'm using real rats here; this is a literary device. Hello?

"Jimmy" By William Malmborg reviewed on Lurid-lit right now!!!

Catch my review of "Jimmy" By William Malmborg on Lurid-lit right now. A fascinating tale of the dichotomy of evil.

Thank you to The Carnage Conservatory...

And Emily Smith-Miller for the kinds words and for including me in a list of writers for The Conservatory; writers whose works have been well followed and well recognized. As The Conservatory launches its new editorial policies I was cited along with Brittany Warren, Gill Hoffs, Peter Marra, Cheryl Anne Gardner and Phillip Andrew Wardlow; all by name and all writers whose work I greatly respect. The Conservatory has been good to me and has allowed me to write the edgier horror that at times simply tumbles out. I am humbled to be included on this list and blessed to be part of this wonderful ezine.

I Know It's Crap, Just Tell Me...

I have begun writing again, after a bit of a hiatus, with a story titled "The Red Light". A couple of nights before class this vision appeared in my dreams and as is the case with each of my stories, I needed to jot down the details. The dream has come to me in parts each night and the story is beginning to fill out now.I haven't written for days, but the everything is becoming clearer in my mind. As I look back on that forst draft I shared with my class, I can tell you that first draft was utter crap. At the 3 am this morning I gutted that draftwhile key elements remain; the characters are different and the language and pace are not recognizable. We all need to have the courage to revise our ideas and feelings in the face of measured thought.