I recently sent out a packet full of pages to a couple close friends / fellow writers in Chicago (you know who you are, or at least you will by Saturday) as well as to a couple people here in Brooklyn for their consideration. Those pages contain a handful of stories I’ve been working on, and quality-wise I think they probably range from “readable” to “as done as they’ll ever be.” One of the aforementioned people happened to refer to this packet as a “manuscript”, and suddenly it occurred to me that I’m actually working on a collection of stories, though I guess I’m only about 25-30% done.  But that’s 25-30% more done than I was before I got here – doesn’t that count for something? It’s working title is Looking At Old Photographs. I like it, but who knows if that’ll stick. 83 pages and counting.

Anyways, over the next several weeks I’ll be posting the aforementioned stories here, for your reading pleasure. This one, called “The Curiosity Shop”, was the first *full* story I ever put down in a paper. I guess you could say I was feeling feverish in the library stacks during finals week sophomore year of undergrad, it sort of just poured out of me in a fit. I came across it not too long ago, and thought it could use a little dusting off, so I reframed it and cleaned it up a bit. Well, cleaned it up a lot. Caveat: it’s weird / gross, but it’s other things too, and hey, give me a break, I was 19. Maybe even 18? Anyways, click here to cop it.