Meanwhile…

Every Day Fiction in it’s infinite wisdom has accepted a new flash piece from me entitled “The Squeeze.” It’s another light, humorous piece. They had me do some rewriting on it, and it came out much better afterward. It comes in under 300 words, but packs potent amusement (but probably only for certain demographics – we shall see)! 

Thanks to Stephanie for helping me with a final tweak that was bothering me!

Expect to see it sometime in May, I would guess.

I haven’t posted a writing sketch lately, so this seems like a good time. To be fair, I haven’t had much to post. I’m still working diligently on my Chuck Chaykin space western (which is shaping up well, I think). But I managed to churn out this little prompt during some downtime at work.

Prompt: Write about a post-apocalyptic world (doesn’t have to be post-nuclear war – could be a world after the financial system collapsed, after a deadly plague, after the zombie apocalypse, etc.).

I went with a zombie story, pretty much. I’ve talked plenty about zombie stories in the past, so I’ll just post the clip and move on. I’m not sure ambassadors actually have any sort of power like this in real life. The idea of a civilian whose job is to help secure peace (presumably) forced to make the difficult decision of whether to wipe out an entire city (or country even) to which he’s been assigned struck me as a powerful one. About 500 words or so. Continue reading

FORT WORTH, TX. Author Alexander Burns today announced the sale of book rights to HarperCollins Children’s Books for his prose book, “The Pizzasaurus.” The book follows the adventures of a young boy and his friends as they confront a deadly menace to their community and pizza parlors. Mr. Burns utilizes nearly thirty years of experience consuming pizza and doodling dinosaurs to bring to light the perils of such a grotesque combination.

Said Mr. Burns at the announcement briefing, “I can only hope that this book will shed some light on this serious problem. The problem of dinosaurs eating all our pizza.”

“I think it’s a remarkable piece of work,” said Neil Gaiman, whose HarperCollins-published “The Graveyard Book” won the 2009 John Newbery Medal. “Very much a fantasy a young child can identify with.”

When asked about the inspiration for the work, Mr. Burns replied, “Uh, I don’t really remember. I wrote it when I was like nine. Mrs. Mitchell, my fourth grade teacher, liked it, though.”

“We’re very excited to begin this relationship with such a fresh voice,” said Susan Katz, President and Publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books. “I’m well aware of the outcry concerning young boys and pizza. We feel like this is an important step forward for a topic largely kept out of the public eye.”

Illustrations for the book are expected to be produced by renowned French illustrator Françoise Mouly.

HarperCollins will publish the audio edition of the book on CD and digital download simultaneous with the hardcover publication.