Remember how back a couple of years ago I got sick and tired of submitting stories to litfic journals and contests that never got back to me, and decided to just put everything up on the web? It’s been awesome. But I kind of backslid a little. I couldn’t resist, just once: the Palo Alto Weekly had rolled out its annual short story contest and the publisher promised that they’d announce selections within a month. Hey, I could wait a month.

They were true to their word, and it was worth it: Petrichor was awarded first prize, and appears in this week’s edition of the Weekly.

Remember how psyched I said I was that Eight in Three Weeks was out and available in stores?* Well yeah, just pile it on, willya? I’m kinda rolling in happy right now. And Devon, Jeremy and I are up at the farm, so life is about as good as it gets right now.

*(Yeah, you can order it on Amazon, but if you do, Amazon gets almost all the money. If you order it from your local bookstore, both the bookstore and my generous and tiny independent publisher get some much-needed support.)

Anyhow: go read Petrichor. I think it’s a pretty good story.