Reading "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" for my Atlanta book club. First line:

As she woke up in the pod, she remembered three things.

I got my 40th rejection from a lit mag this week.

Over the last year I got more serious about my writing. I sent out 73 submissions, and got 3 stories accepted. (I withdrew 17 simultaneous submissions.)

Christmas Day at Limantour Beach, Marin County CA

Mountain Lake Park in San Francisco may be one of the most underrated parks in the city. Beautiful, spacious, and walking distance to amazing dim sum on Clement Street.

Reading Jim Thompson's "The Getaway" for an online book club organized by @anthonyjeselnik.bsky.social

First line:

Carter "Doc" McCoy had left a morning call for six o'clock, and he was reaching for the telephone the moment the night clerk rang.

I really love how my four-year-old colored in this pig.

Continuing my end of the year short story madness with The O. Henry Prize Winners 2025!

It's short story season! I've been collecting The Best American Short Stories since 2016.

Circe, by Madeline Miller. First sentence:

"When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist."

I just had my first story published at Gordon Square Review! Check out "A Sudden Hail of Gunfire, a Wedding, and a Dance."

www.gordonsquarereview.org/yee-195426-6...

Hermit crab spotted in Fort Bragg, California

Picked up this great hat from Devil's Teeth Bakery in San Francisco.

I picked up North Woods by Daniel Mason from Copperfield Books in San Rafael.

First line: "They had come to the spot in the freshness of June, chased from the village by its people, following deer path through the forest, the valleys, the fern groves, and the quaking bogs."

I love that list.

Ghost Pipes, parasitic plants that feed from the same fungus that channels nutrients to tree roots.

Some charismatic critters in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Picked up "Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future" by Gloria Dickie, from Parnassus Books in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Picked up the wonderfully titled "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" by Robert Olen Butler from Press Shop in Atlanta.

First lines: "I have no hatred in me. I'm almost certain of that."

I like how the author introduces this uncertainty especially around such a strong emotion as hate.

Picked up "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff at Smith's Family Bookstore in Eugene, Oregon.

First line: "The women in the river, singing."

Very enigmatic. Kind of timeless, like a memory can be.

I picked up Alice Munro's "Girls and Women" from Books 'n' Bears in Florence, Oregon.

The first line and first paragraph are fantastic. Munro plops us right into the character's world. You can feel what it is to be them, and there. "We squished them tenderly..." Wonderful.