The Best of Baltimore

Baltimore Magazine has given City Sages the "Best of Baltimore" award!

City Sages is the first book published by CityLit Press.

Congratulations to editor Jen Michalski, cover designer Justin Sirois, CityLit founder and executive director Gregg Wilhelm, and all the "sages" who contributed their literary art to the anthology.

Pick up a copy of the August issue of Baltimore. Then, pick up a copy of City Sages.

Why not get your copy at Baltimore’s third best bookstore, Atomic Books (which ranked after the power chains)? And read it at Baltimore’s best bar, The Brewer’s Art (which Esquire rated the best bar in America). You won’t be able to watch the movie version at Baltimore’s third best theater, because The Senator has closed its doors. But Patterson, Federal Hill, and Oriole Parks are all open for your reading pleasure.

See the “Best of Baltimore” lists for yourself at the following link.

www.baltimoremagazine.net/bestofpoll

Hit This Lit on NPR Podcast

Last Friday I read an abridgement of my story, “One Last Hit,” on Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR. The serialized excerpt from TRACKS aired on The Signal, on the air and online at noon and 7. TRACKS is a novel in stories that takes place on a train traveling from Baltimore to Chicago.

Miss the broadcast? Listen to the podcast at the link below!

“One Last Hit” was originally published in the Freshly Squeezed anthology published by Loyola’s Apprentice House. It follows a hit man as he prepares to carry out his last job and contemplates how he got into the unscrupulous business to begin with.

Be sure to hit this lit! My reading is about 22 minutes into the podcast at the link below.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wypr/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1672430&pid=347&sid=14

Happy Birthday Mockingbird

Maybe it should have been called How to Give Life to a Mockingbird. The book certainly has had a long and acclaimed life, never once out of print over half a century. Harper Lee’s one and only novel is 50.

It has been cited as the most influential book after The Bible — and one of the most challenged books too.

Spend some time getting to know Scout, Gem, and Atticus Finch again: Read To Kill a Mockingbird. Then learn more about it at the wiki site below.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

Tune in to NPR for a "Hit" of Fiction

Today I return to the local NPR station (WYPR) to read from my fiction on The Signal. Each week The Signal explores the cultural landscape of Baltimore.

Tune in on the radio or online. The broadcast is at 12 noon and repeats at 7 p.m. today: Friday, July 9. Adjust your radio to 88.1 FM or log on to www.wypr.org.

“One Last Hit” is an abridged story from TRACKS, a novel in stories that takes place on a train traveling from Baltimore to Chicago.

The story was originally published in the Freshly Squeezed anthology published by Loyola’s Apprentice House. It follows a hit man as he prepares to carry out his last job and contemplates how he got into the unscrupulous business to begin with.

The novel is represented by the Doris S. Michaels Literary Agency Inc. in New York.

Enjoy this hit of fiction today at 88.1 FM or www.wypr.org. Tune in at noon or 7.

More Lackluster than Blockbuster

This summer at the movies, the pickings have been more lackluster than blockbuster. And America’s got talent? Not so much this season.

So writers, stand up and show what you’ve got to offer.

Washington Improv Theater's training program has been offering classes in sketch comedy writing for several sessions now and wants to reach out to other writing programs and writers.

The classes typically meet for seven sessions, three hours at a time. It’s not too late to join in. This course is that it not only enhances writing skills, but opens the doors to an amazingly fun outlet for writers in a very cool environment.

Interested? Check out the Washington Improv website at the link below, or give the theater a call (202) 204-7770.

www.washingtonimprovtheater.com

From Sasebo to Chicago in 20 Years

Late last week and early this week I was back in the Windy City. No, it wasn’t research for a revision of TRACKS, my novel in stories that takes place on a train traveling from Baltimore to Chicago. I was in “Second City” for a reunion.

Alongside friends I hadn’t seen in person for more than 20 years, I tasted Chicago (Taste of Chicago being the city’s biggest tourism draw), was educated on an architectural cruise along the river, glimpsed the world’s largest stained glass museum, visited the Art Institute, stopped by the Drake and the Lake, enjoyed a drink in the Hancock’s Signature Lounge, dug into the original Chicago Deep Dish, and sampled some local brew.

But the highlight of the trip was reconnecting with these people I practically lived with day in and day out for two years of my life in a foreign country some 23 years ago.

We were all in the same boat, so to speak, as we embarked on a dinner cruise and an evening of reflection. Way back when, all of us had been transplanted for a few years in an American school in Sasebo, Japan with about 50 students in middle and high school combined. Everyone knew everyone. Maybe that’s why this gathering of people (now scattered around the world) who met at Navy Pier felt more like a family reunion than a class reunion.

The cruise, dinner, fireworks, limo, VIP access to the rooftop club … it was all nice. But best of all was how at home we felt in a city not our own — because we came back together after so long and picked up as thought we’d never parted.

Much has changed. More is the same.

What does this have to do with writing? Well, the Sasebo reunion inspired me to write this, didn’t it? There’s a lot of emphasis these days on looking forward and being in the moment. But don’t forget the value in reconnecting with people, places, and things that are a part of your past. It may give you something to write about.

Need inspiration? Reconnect.