Somehow, I managed to overlook posting here about a nonfiction essay I wrote last fall! "The Circle Broken: Pushing Daisies Leaves Room for Pie" appears in Journey Planet #58 "Cancelled Too Soon!"

This special double isssue of the Hugo-nominated fanzine was "dedicated to Television Programs that were cancelled after two seasons or less! Thrill to tales from fans, critics, show-runners, inspirations, and writers about the shows that were loved, or at least watched, and lost." Steven H Silver edited the issue. You can download it here for free.

What did I write about? Why, as you can tell from the title, the answer is Pushing Daisies!

I've long listed Pushing Daisies as one of my all-time favorite shows, but because it lasted such a short time, that was really more wishing for what could have been than the reality of what the show was. You see, it's easy to view something with rose-colored glasses when it's been snuffed out in its prime, before the realities of a long life add depth to that vision....but now, I'm getting ahead of myself. 😉 If you're interested in pondering how Pushing Daises broke the cycles of life and death, and how having the show's own cycle get cut short may have been the best thing that could have happened to it, then take a few minutes and dive into "The Circle Broken: Pushing Daisies Leaves Room for Pie."

Of course, there are a great many other essays on great works of television that did not get their due in this issue of Journey Planets! Enjoy the excuse to relive a little of those works that you loved and download the issue.

About a month ago, I took part in Winter Tales, a reading of holiday-themed works by local authors that was hosted by the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough. Poems, essays, stories, and songs were all shared that evening, and now we have video of each reading! I'm embedding them all here so you can enjoy the event as we did.

First, because this is my blog, I'm sharing my reading of a personal essay, "Treasures in Cardboard Boxes." It's a reflection on losing a mixtape of Christmas carols and on growing up a little different from your family.

http://youtu.be/RASxC6VbDnw

Next is "Winter Sonnet," a poem by James Maxey, the organizer of the event. It is a quick, sweet listen about celebrating winter with his wife.

http://youtu.be/0n8d_4kxufM

Also from James is a personal essay, "Christmas Dismemberment," about receiving presents you don't really want as a child.

http://youtu.be/JyMesp5iZxM

The evening began with a reading of a drabble, a 100-word short stories, by Mur Lafferty, the first of which was "Zuzu's Bell" about Lucifer on his birthday.

http://youtu.be/FvO5Xr4mYWY

Mur's second reading was "750,000 of Your Friends Like This," a futuristic, cynical, yet fun take on the Christmas Carol revisions in the future. Sorry it's a bit lower quality than the rest of the excerpts.

http://youtu.be/rXQn3qydFhU?t=4m47s

Alex Granados gave less of a reading and more of a storytelling, sharing an adventure with in-laws called "Death By Big Screen TV." It's a great portrayal of his father-in-law and his can-do-anything attitude.

http://youtu.be/DWLtPhQDqq4

Last, but not least, are two songs from Gray Rinehart. The first was inspired by his time in Greenland and is titled "Winter Simplifies the World."

http://youtu.be/NcuFopdrE3Y

The second song is light-hearted and FILK, meaning it's a play on science fiction or fantasy works. This is "Tauntauns to Glory," a fun tribute to the majestic tauntauns of Star Wars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6RS-YAgk2U&feature=share&list=PLQpBV0kAm077EazC-jrPE5iaGkhIn_-5j

And thus concludes these Winter Tales. Hopefully, they brightened yours, wherever it may be.

Now that those pesky recent publications have stopped getting in the way (yes, yes, I wish I could complain about more of them!), I can return to my pattern of posting oldest to newest credits in this self-promotion series. Next up is a short little guest blog post I did back in the fall of 2009 on the Muffin Blog. It was written as a way to vent my frustration after losing years of creative writing due to a hard drive failure.More importantly, it was an ode to all the characters I lost from the crash. Here's your lead-in:

I lost six years of my life. Okay, I’m being a tad dramatic. I lost six years’ worth of word processor documents. They’re gone. They left for the great recycling bin icon in the sky and some jerk emptied it. I’m the jerk.

A few years ago, I decided the old college laptop had to go. It had been wacky since my roommate borrowed it for a night of feverish essay typing and spilled a mug of coffee on it. The keys sank down like molasses when you pressed them and came up 1. . . 2 . . .3 seconds later with a loud click. The down arrow key would possess the cursor, sending it on a race down the monitor, which no control-alt-delete combination could halt.

If your interest is peaked, read the rest at the Muffin Blog! And for your visual pleasure, I give you kitten Verdandi expressing the same rage at dirty laundry as I felt when I realized the files were gone forever.

Would you like to know how good of a year 2012 has been so far? This is the second time I've had to replace one of my planned bragging posts with a just published one instead!  Let's hope this is a trend that continues.

This week, I'm directing you to an essay I wrote for our local independent newspaper, sensibly named the Independent Weekly, or the Indy if you're a local. The Front Porch column is open to readers to send in 500-word essays on any topic, and it's often a great place to get a sense of what others in the community are thinking about or just taste a little slice of someone's life. This week, it's my life you can dig into, or at least my opinions on the running craze and the constant fundraisers around us. Here is your teaser:

On Facebook, I complete the circle of life every day by reading the status updates of friends and acquaintances. Births, weddings, deaths, more births: They're all there on display. Lately, it seems, there's a new element of living that I'd previously neglected. I'm talking about races, the running kind—anything that ends in "-athlon," "-K" or red-faced racers clutching their stomachs as they breathlessly pass a finish line.

Ostensibly, it's both the method of choice to raise money for every known charity and the trendiest way to announce a transition from out-of-shape blob to exercise hound. Watching from the sidelines, it's a little bewildering . . .

For the rest of the Front Porch, either pick up a free copy of the Indy at pretty much any coffee shop and many local businesses or head over to the web version. Thanks for reading!