“Our staff found much to admire in your submission. We read it aloud in candlelight, and chanted the closing lines as the sun came up. It may be the greatest short story any of us has ever read. Unfortunately, your submission doesn’t meet our needs at this time, and we must respectfully decline.”

Link to buy Stanchion, Issue no. 21 (Ten dollars, cheap!): www.stanchionzine.com

Here’s the first page:

This story, "Las Máquinas del Amor," is the rock'n'roll origin of Memo, a young man from Zacatecas, Mexico, who falls in love with music and a woman at the same time. Guess which one wins?

Just published in Stanchion, Issue no. 21. (Link to follow)

"...Music would always be his best comfort. A warm thing, a meal, a lover itself. Not a tool for money or glory or sex, in no need of greater worthiness. I am your constant companion, I will never leave you. And that will be enough."

Scene: in line at the cinema

Me (to my GF): We should see HAMNET! It’s about a fisherman who keeps catching pork roasts in his nets. He brings the catch home everyday and his wife’s like, ‘What’s with all the pork?! Can’t you do anything right?!’
GF: Sounds weird.
Guy behind us in line: 🥴🥴🥴

Discography: R.E.M.: Collapse Into Now - Spectrum Culture On Collapse into Now, R.E.M. revisited the places they had come from, musically and thematically, and left an essential record of just how beautifully they wrote and sang and played.

I wrote about COLLAPSE INTO NOW for @spectrumculture.bsky.social ‘s R.E.M. discography series: spectrumculture.com/2026/01/15/d...

I started drifting away from R.E.M. after Berry left the band in ‘97, but revisiting their final album COLLAPSE INTO NOW (2011) has given me new appreciation for what a banger it is. All the pop and flow of the band’s best work, tempered with the bittersweet awareness of the end of it all. A must!

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

Issues 21 & 22 are at the printer!!

If you want to help keep a lit mag that pays & prints & prices fairly & ships quickly going strong (or at least, going) your pre-orders of one or both of these music-themed issues would be rad. They're fantastic.

Stanchionzine.com/shop

Chomsky: really putting the “sin” and the “ick” in syntactic structures

Home | Stanchion Stanchion Lit Zine is an exciting new quarterly literary zine and photography zine printed on elegant paper.

Stanchion: www.stanchionzine.com

I especially love that it's positioned as the first track on side B, which is so often where the cool tunes show up. Use the link in the comments to pre-order a copy and support a great independent publisher!
3/4

The story is a stand-alone excerpt from my MFA thesis manuscript, and it's one of my favorite pieces I've written in years.

Set in Zacatecas, MX, it's about sudden love, cruising town in a VW Bug, and the trick to overcoming stage fright.
2/4

This is going to be good! STANCHION is one of the coolest literary presses around, and they are putting out a "double album" of music-themed stories. A piece of mine, "Las Máquinas del Amor," will appear on album #1 (Issue 21).
1/4

Jesus is on Newsweek, MLK is on What If, my story is in the current issue of Analog, and we’re all hanging out in the periodicals section of Barnes & Noble. Join us!

⚡️Starman⚡️

Thanks for reading and sharing!

Circles & Such: Black Elk, Rilke, A.C. Koch, Emerson, Mary Oliver, Lew Welch, Dogen, Scarecrow Podcast Episode · Before the Page · 12/03/2025 · 20m

It's a huge honor to have my work included in Charlie Mehrhoff's podcast, BEFORE THE PAGE, among some freaking TITANS of the written word like Rilke, Emerson, Mary Oliver and Charlie himself. Charlie's reading/speaking voice is hypnotic, and serves the work beautifully.

5)The Starworthy Slip by @ackoch.bsky.social: heist on Jupiter moon gets-almost-sidetracked when one accomplice falls for beautiful local identity mixer. Slick, smooth

It’s happening! The Chef André Show has been rescheduled for this Thursday, Nov. 20, 7 pm at Mutiny Information Cafe. Brace yourselves, gird your loins, and wear your best shoes.

Have to postpone this show due to illness. Watch this space for a new date

Attention Earthlings: I’m playing a bunch of new songs next Friday, Nov. 7 at Mutiny Cafe in Denver, but it won’t mean anything if you aren’t there. Let’s do this thing. 7 p.m., no charge. Wear your best shoes.

I’ll be playing songs from my new studio album, ASK THE MOON, at Mutiny Information Cafe on Friday, Nov. 7, if that’s okay with you. There are some songs about shipwrecks, haunted stuffed animals, a Spanish mambo, and a love song about a Japanese fountain pen. Show probably starts at 7 pm.

Chef André will play songs from his new studio album, ASK THE MOON, at Mutiny Information Cafe on Friday, Nov. 7, if that’s okay with you. There are some songs about shipwrecks, haunted stuffed animals, a Spanish mambo, and a love song about a Japanese fountain pen. Show probably starts at 7 pm.

Friends! I’ll be reading from some new stories this evening at Fort Greene as part of the Reading Den series. Hope to see you there!

I’m just a boy
Standing in front of the Universe
Asking it to let me watch MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007) for the first time again.

Discography: R.E.M.: Reckoning - Spectrum Culture An album that more fully captures the band’s live sound, Reckoning also presents a perfectly balanced set of impeccable, atmospheric songs. It’s one of R.E.M.’s best.

Our trip through R.E.M.'s discography reckons with "Reckoning." Was "Time After Time" our least favorite song?
spectrumculture.com/2025/08/28/d...

Every U2 Song Ranked: Part Twenty-Five: “Rejoice” (#20–11) - Spectrum Culture Our penultimate picks are legacy-cementing if not defining.

The penultimate list is up! We're ranking all of U2's 259 songs. Here's #20-11!

Happy 3-Week Anniversary to my submission to Clarkesworld still not being rejected yet 👀👀👀