The first issue of Twelve Stories (edited by Molly Gaudry and Blythe Winslow) is now up, including my story "The Founder of this Town." I was glad they took this one, as it's in a voice I hadn't used in a while, but which I have fun writing-- It's sort of a doomed but well-meaning idiot voice, I think. I used something similar in this story and this one and this one, all published around the same time a year or two ago. It was fun to do it again, and I'm glad to have it published in what I'm sure is going to be a pretty cool online publication. They're certainly off to a good start, with stories from Rusty Barnes, Steve Almond, Jimmy Chen, and others, including my newest Facebook friend, J.R. Angelella.

Here's the beginning of "The Founder of this Town":

I sat eating my lunch on a bench beneath a statue of the town founder, an old dead guy who no one I knew knew the name of. My lunch was delicious—tuna fish sandwich and salt and vinegar potato chips—and even though it was the same thing I ate every day, it was still just as good as it had been the first time. Also, the sun was out and shining and bright without being too hot, which was good because the side of the statue I was sitting on didn't really offer any shade. What I'm saying—what I'm trying to say—is that I was quite happy, even though I only had a thirty-minute lunch break and then I had to go back to my job, which I hated, and even though I had seen on the television that there had been a new flood in Texas, or maybe an earthquake in Belize.

And here's the full lineup for the issue:

Steve Almond, "The Love Song of Piltdown Man"
J.R. Angelella, "The Saddening State of Sammy the Speechwriter"
Rusty Barnes, "No Light"
Matt Bell, "The Founder of this Town"
Jimmy Chen, "Rose Period"
Timothy Gager, "Your Vasectomy Journal"
Richard Garcia, "The Chair"
Kathryn Good-Schiff, "The Grand Monadnock"
Jim Hanas, "July 4: Easter"
Jeff Landon, "Creek Monster"
Jennifer Levin, "The Day You Were Sad"
Dan Moreau, "A Turn of Events"

Enjoy!