"All This Darkness" out now in Apex Magazine!

 My latest short story is now available in issue 123 of Apex Magazine! It will be free to read on June 1, but the full issue is only $4.99 if you can't bear to wait. It's called "All This Darkness," from the Bruce Springsteen song "Land of Hope and Dreams." 

It isn't about Bruce Springsteen, though, and it isn't a New Jersey story. It's inspired by Shamokin, Pennsylvania, where my grandparents come from. It was a coal mining town, until the mines closed, and so my story is about the generation of kids that thought they would graduate high school (or not) and go to work in the mines, like their parents before them. Until the mines closed. And then they went into the mountain anyway.

I do hope you'll give it a read, and enjoy! They also interviewed me, which was really fun and interesting.

Edited to add: Here is the direct link to my story: https://apex-magazine.com/all-this-darkness/

Setting and Soundtrack

So I already discussed this in Theme Song: my actual 2013 NaNoWriMo project (as opposed to my original idea) is taking place at the Jersey Shore. And if you mention that reality show to me here in this space, so help me....

But yeah. Nostalgia city.

Most New Jersey ever? Well.....

So, I was on the Internet, as one does, and I found a Buzzfeed link to the 22 Most New Jersey Songs of All Time. This was subtitled "surprisingly, they're not ALL by Bruce Springsteen." Why yes, I was surprised. Being from New Jersey, I was excited and hesitant to peruse the list.

I don't know a lot of the songs. Never heard of the band (group? What are kids calling them these days? Ensemble?), never heard of the song, never heard the song itself. Real Estate? Who the hell are they? "Surburban Dogs" isn't a bad song; perhaps it will even grow on me. But, as you can imagine, it does not evoke my home state for me.

(picture from Wikimedia commons)

And Lauryn Hill is right out.

I do appreciate that there is a band called Titus Andronicus, and I think "In a Big City"is the most successful song for me in the list of "what the hell is this?!" songs, but it could be for the line "deluge of hipsters". Because seriously, hipsters.

They do say "Bruce Springsteen's entire catalog, basically", but then go to name 3 songs: "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)". Okay, good. Yes. "Atlantic City". YES. "Born to Run". Oh HELL yeah, preach it!

.....but then that's it. I mean obviously, Bruce Springsteen is New Jersey's patron saint in my eyes. Thunder Road, Spirit in the Night, Jungleland, all of it. But only three Bruce Springsteen songs get mentioned by name, while two of Bon Jovi's do? Bon Jovi just isn't as evocative for me. I'm sorry. Well, I'm not. This is my blog and I'll say what I want.

(picture from Wikimedia Commons)

I guess it would be a boring list if it was 22 Bruce Springsteen songs about New Jersey. I get that. But why both with a list that's the Most ___ of ALL Time? Did they consult anybody from New Jersey? I'm not just being picky; people commenting on the post are pretty much all "hey, what about...?"

However, all is not lost. In the sidebar was 13 Things About Rainbow Brite You'll Now Find Hilarious.  Because I'm a recalcitrant bitch, I thought

But, some of the things in that list were, in fact, really funny. And then I discovered THAT YOU CAN HAVE A RAINBOWBRITE.ORG EMAIL ADDRESS and was at the same time flailing and also paralyzed with glee. So, it balances out. Like when Osiris measures your heart against a feather, and Ammit the Destroyer gets to eat it, or not.

(interestingly, Michael the Archangel is also said to weigh the souls of the dead)

(Wikimedia Commons)

Hmm. Or maybe they don't win. They seem to think people have forgotten Celebrity Deathmatch. Seriously? Who do you talk to? Were they born in the 90's? Is that it?

Maybe I'm just addicted to list posts and need to be done. Or done with Buzzfeed. I'm going back to Cracked.com.

Bruce Springsteen

Well, I was going to wait. But why not talk about Bruce Springsteen?

In my previous post, "The Order of Things", I discussed having a novel that was inspired and influenced by Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland".  Off of the Born to Run album, which is hands-down my favorite, it's also, I think, the longest song. It's about love and betrayal and being desperate, and all the things that go on at night.