News

TODAY’S NEWS

January 2021 (Writing). I have an essay about running and parenting up at Fatherly. Also, my brief essay “Sunrise,” originally published in Brevity, has been selected for the Best of Brevity anthology. Now in bookstores.

January 2021 (Rocking). Watershed released a new, 4-song EP called Extended Player. For more information, see Watershed Central. Here’s the video for the single “Bleeding on the Blank Page.” Here’s a link to a recent story about the band in Columbus Alive.

YESTERDAY’S NEWS

06/26/18. Waiting to Derail is in stores now! Here’s an excerpt from the book, posted at Salon.

05/16/18. I have a new essay called “Sunrise” up at Brevity Magazine.

09/22/17. Thanks to the literary journal storySouth for publishing this INTERVIEW with me and this REVIEW of Partisans.

07/13/17. Partisans is in stores now!

05/09/17. This summer Watershed shakes off the rust on a mini-tour through the Buckeye State.

04/20/17. I recently spoke with Joe Bonomo about Chuck Berry, AC/DC, and how hard it is to write on the label of Certron-90 cassette with a Bic pen. Our conversation is posted at The Normal School.

04/06/17. Scott Pleasant and I recently wrote a retrospective on Coastal Carolina’s College World Series championship for Grand Strand Magazine. Check it out HERE.

08/15/16. Creative Nonfiction magazine has just published “Writing the Apple,” a roundtable discussion in which a few of my best writer-friends and I try to figure out how to write about our kids without messing them up (too much).

07/27/16. “Partisans,” the title essay in my forthcoming collection, has just been published by the literary journal River Teeth.

05/19/16. I’m thrilled to report that my next book, an essay collection called Partisans, will be published by Black Lawrence Press next May.

05/14/16. My craft essay Mary Poppins and the Art of Sweetening with Scene appears in the new issue of Brevity Magazine.

05/01/16. My essay “The Get Down,” in which I confirm once again that for a bass player I can’t dance for shit, now appears in Superstition Review.

02/04/16. I learned this week that a new essay of mine, “The Get Down,” will appear in the Spring issue of Superstition Review, the literary journal housed at Arizona State University.

11/11/15. I recently did an interview with the Rappahannock Review about “Misfire,” a piece that ran in the journal earlier this fall. Click HERE.

09/22/15. I’m happy today to discover that my piece “The Botch Job,” originally published in Creative Nonfiction magazine, was cited as a notable essay in The Best American Essays 2015.

08/31/15. If you liked HITLESS WONDER, you may want to check out “Misfire,” a short piece that I recently published in the Rappahannock Review. This is the kind of rockstar hedonism that really happens on the road.

08/22/15. LINES OF SCRIMMAGE will officially be published on September 1, but Amazon and other sites are shipping it now. No need to wait until next month. Feel free to order your copy today.

07/05/15. On this 5th of July, I’m thrilled to announce that semi-legendary hitless wonders Watershed will return to the stage for one night only. Saturday, August 15. Ace of Cups. Columbus, OH. Special Guest: John Speck. Stay tuned for advance ticket information.

06/17/15. A new essay of mine has been accepted for publication by River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative. The piece tells the story of the time I watched college football in Mexico via pirated satellite at the home of a transplanted ‘Bama fan. Spoiler: Race becomes an issue.

05/11/15. I recently had an essay accepted for publication at the Rappahannock Review, the literary journal housed at the University of Mary Washington and launched a few years ago by then students of the late, great, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Claudia Emerson. Look for my piece to be published in August.

03/24/15. Esquire.com just published a piece that Scott Pleasant and I wrote about Coastal Carolina’s (too brief) NCAA Tournament journey: “16 Things You Learn About the NCAA Tournament While on the Road with a 16 Seed.”

09/25/14. Scott Pleasant and I have written a retrospective on the 1989 Conway football boycott for the Myrtle Beach Weekly Surge. The article is essentially a preview of our forthcoming book about the incident, Lines of Scrimmage. Read the Surge article HERE.

09/16/14. Coastal Carolina University asked Scott Pleasant and me to write new words for the CCU fight song. What an honor. See the results HERE.

09/04/14. Creative Nonfiction Magazine has published a new essay of mine, “The Botch Job.” The piece was a runner-up in the magazine’s “Mistakes” essay contest, finishing second from over 800 entries.

07/22/14. Cool! Check out this thoughtful analysis of my short story “Towing and Recovery” (which was originally published in storySouth) at the blog Great Writers Steal.

07/21/14. A new essay of mine, “Writing in the Major Key,” is posted at Bending Genre. In this piece I tackle the question of why we writers so often focus on the sad and serious.

05/06/14.   A nice review on the blog ninebullets.net. The writers call it their favorite rock biography of all time, which means they have impeccable taste.

04/30/14. Listen to me yapping about art, inspiration, and the Insane Clown Posse on the excellent podcast The One You Feed.

04/04/14. A nice piece about Hitless Wonder in the Ohio Book Review. Click HERE.

11/18/13. The literary journal em: A Review of Text and Image has published my essay, “This Machine No Longer Kills Fascists (Did it Ever?).” You can read the essay in PDF form by clicking HERE and scrolling to page 97.

11/15/13. My current book project, Lines of Scrimmage: A Story of Football, Race, and Redemption (co-written with Scott Pleasant), is now under contract with the University Press of Mississippi.

10/21/13. I’m honored that my essay “The Mercy Kill” (originally published last year in The Normal School) was awarded a Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize XXXVII anthology, 2014.

10/18/13. Bestselling writer (and all-around mensch) Will Allison gave Hitless Wonder a nice recommendation in Post Road Magazine.

5/6/13. I’m happy to report that I have won Coastal Carolina University’s College of the Humanities Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Creative Endeavors.

3/15/13. Myrtle Beach is like one big Chuck E. Cheese’s. And that’s a good thing. To see how and why, check out this essay I wrote for Grand Strand Magazine, “A Salute to the Tourist.”

1/3/13. Hitless Wonder may not be a hit in a New York Times Bestseller kind of way, but it did spend the whole month of December as one of Amazon’s Top 5 rock and roll books, joining (and often surpassing) titans like Richards, Young, and Springsteen. Baby, even the losers…

11/2/12. Already thinking ahead to spring. On March 12 I’ll be back in the Pacific Northwest, giving a public reading at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. Two weeks later, I’ll be in Thomas Jefferson country, appearing at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, from March 20 to March 24. For more information, see the EVENTS page.

7/16/12. Kind words about Hitless Wonder and Watershed keep rolling in. For a complete list of the coverage, click HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page.

7/5/12. In the wake of the NPR story that aired on Sunday, July 1, HITLESS WONDER is climbing the Amazon charts. In other news, on Monday, July 9, I’ll be chatting with Sean Moncrieff on newsTALK 106-108 FM, Ireland’s National Talk Radio station. The interview will air at 9:45 a.m. Eastern Time, 2:45 p.m. Western European Time. Those of you not on the island of saints and scholars can listen live HERE.

6/7/12. The Hitless Wonder/Brick & Mortar Tour has begun. See you at the bar.

5/8/12 Okay, eggheads. I hate to get all elbow-patched English professor on you, but the Victorians Institute Journal (Yes, as in Queen Victoria. Yes, as in England) has published my paper, “Knights of the Napkin: Waiters as Class-Enforcers in David Copperfield.” Yes, as in Dickens, Charles.

4/25/12 The literary journal, The Normal School, has published my essay, “The Mercy Kill.” It’s about a murderer who lived on my street in the tony suburb of Worthington, Ohio.

4/23/12 A nice review of Hitless Wonder from Publishers Weekly.

2/1/12 The brand spankin’ literary journal, White Space, is featuring a new essay of mine in their nifty debut issue. “This Machine No Longer Kills Fascists (Did It Ever?)” weighs the ever-eroding connection between music and politics.

1/3/12 Memorious magazine has included HITLESS WONDER in their preview of 2012 books.

11/30/11 HITLESS WONDER is now available for pre-order at AMAZON and BARNES & NOBLE.

11/1/11 My play, “Los Camioneros” (“The Truckers”), has been published by The Louisville Review. It’s about immigrant smuggling, told from the point of view of the smugglers themselves. Click HERE to read the play (and the rest of the excellent issue) in PDF format.

9/20/11 The mensches at storySouth have published my short story, “Towing and Recovery.” It’s a piece about a working class guy who’s struggling with the responsibilities of adulthood and fatherhood. UPDATE: storySouth has nominated the piece for a Pushcart Prize.

Just got word that the super-cool and long-running literary journal, The Louisville Review, will be publishing my play, “Los Camioneros,” in their fall issue. The play is about immigrant smugglers, and it’s based on true events. And since it’s coming out in The Louisville Review, my recommendation is that you enjoy it with bourbon. I’m thinking Basel Hayden’s.

My memoir, Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll, has found an excellent home. Lyons Press will publish the book in Spring 2012.

The hepcats at Barrelhouse Magazine have just released their Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll edition, an issue so sexy, so drug-addled, so flat-out fricking rocking, you might catch the clap just from reading it.  Inside you’ll find “Age of Consent,” an excerpt from my memoir, Hitless Wonder, wherein our hero finally gets the girl.