I haven’t been keeping up with my homework, I’m afraid, at least where this blog has been concerned. I’ve been working on short stories and a novel revision which started out minor, but as often happens, turned out major. (Your mom was right when she told you not to pull at loose threads.) So, here’s a little background on “Meeting The Creature”, which was published in Across the Margin about two months ago.

Emmitt is mentioned in the very first story in this series, “The Day Molly Got Into The Room” as Molly’s black boyfriend. At that time, she hadn’t introduced Emmitt to her stepfather, Howard Zez. (I still haven’t written the story in which that happens). So I wanted to write a story where they meet by accident. This is that story.

I enjoyed writing it because I liked fleshing out Emmitt–not just his trepidation at having to make his way in the very white moviemaking world of the 1960s, but also his humor and his love of science fiction and horror movie monsters. It was also fun to have him fence with Howard Zez. I love any chance to drop the name Lola Falana into dialogue, and this was my first legitimate excuse.

Another story of mine will be out in a week-to-ten days, or so I’ve been told. You’ll hear more from me here then. In the meantime, you can find me on Twitter busting Trump’s chops or on Instagram taking pictures of faraway stuff, or on Facebook not doing all that much really.