Reading the West
THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER is nominated for Best Fiction at the @readingthewest Book Awards! Voting is open now through May 31st. Cast your vote for Good Stab at readingthewest.com.
Best of April 2026
ROTE EP by The Sulac System (read a lot of books as well, but they don’t even have covers yet, I don’t think. and, have been rereading the whole Sin City series, too)
Blue Butterfly Land
few things I thought sort of funny and save-able, from BlueSky, the only place I am—except for here. And, you know: life, the world. “Colorado,” I guess, sometimes. Less often than I want, really.
Two Weeks of Scripting
Well, two weeks cut by three or four days of driving and a couple book events, but: done with the first draft of the scripts for the comic project I can’t yet talk about, as it’s being announced [also redacted . . .]. Five issues, though. About two-hundred pages? But, am doing a new thing—well,
Albums
Got to thinking what are the main ones for me, these past fifty-four years. It’s these twelve:
Newnan, GA
My last event there was last night. Good time. Read a new story. Well, read a few new stories, actually. Can’t seem to stop writing new stories.
Whole Shelf’ing It
I always think it’s the coolest, walking by an airport bookstore and seeing my books there. But having nearly a WHOLE SHELF at B&N is pretty great, too. And, they said that before they put that shelf-talker up and sold through their Chainsaws this weekend, it was the whole shelf. Anyway: “Oh, the places you’ll
LAT Book Fest 2026
Starts in the hotel bar before the ceremony, with great friends (all of us finalists, even): So many photos/selfies from the reception after the ceremony, too, but . . . who knows where they all are. Not me. Anyway, next day was some three hours of signing: And the panel, which had . . .
Best Reads from Lately
some few articles and news bits &etc I enjoyed, am caching here like an alligator stashes its kills under a log in the pond, to gnaw on later.
Mr. Riordan and Good Stab
Quite kind of him. Back when—like, way back when, 02 maybe, but could have been up to 05, I guess—he moderated a panel I did at Texas Book Festival. Something about “violence.” Cool dude, good writer. When my son was reading the Percy Jacksons, I read them with him, and then of course I watched
Interviews, Podcasts, Recordings
Forgot I was stashing these—let them build up too long. Not comprehensive (never comprehensive . . .), but . . . here’s some, anyway?
Leipzig Book Fair
It’s very much worth checking out. As in its monstrous, huge, ginormous—five halls of stuff, as opposed to the single hall most American cons seem to take place in. Fun place to get lost in. And, fun crowd to try to navigate to your panel / interview / whatever, when you’re a “leave forty-five seconds
Blue Butterfly Land
(probably never said: I always scroll back through these to make sure they’re as, you know, necessary as I may have thought they were while standing in some boarding line. so, all of these? so necessary)
Back from Stanford
Was a great time. Had never spent any real time in the Bay Area. Guess this is the . . . the third time I’ve gone somewhere else for a semester, to teach? University of Utah, University of Montana, and, now, Stanford. Who knows if I ever do it again, but this time, doing a
Blue light special
(probably not the first, or even fifth tie I’ve used some version of that for a post title)
Dogland
Y’all remember back when every third dog was named “Curtis Lowe?” I guess I don’t either—think it was forty-five, fifty years ago. And it was probably every 700th dog. But still, it was a thing, and it must have been cool. And? Maybe this is how it started: