Hey, Your Nose is on Fire!

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Well, maybe they'll at least get ice cream what with the stand right there and all...      And in case anyone's interested in my new poetry collection, Two Strikes and I'm Out , it's now available from the fine folks at Island of Wak Wak Press. To be technical, I suppose, it's more a 6,700-word short story told over the course of 63 poems than an actual collection, but nonetheless, there it is. I think we've gotten all the typos out of it at this point, too!

The Terebinth Story Archive      A seven-line stanza with this sort of a rhyme scheme is known as a canopus after a poem of that name by Clement Wood. Just in case anyone was wondering...      And in case anyone's interested in my new poetry collection, Two Strikes and I'm Out , it's now available from the fine folks at Island of Wak Wak Press. To be technical, I suppose, it's more a 6,700-word short story told over the course of 63 poems than an actual collection, but nonetheless, there it is. I think we've gotten all the typos out of it at this point, too!

The end of June must mean:      My new poetry book's out!      Not that it's anything as simple as a collection of poems. I mean, what'd be the fun in that? Instead, it's a 6,700 word story told from beginning to middle to end over the course of 63 poems written in a variety of forms and meters. Because that's what we do for fun 'round these parts!      I never intended for it to be a story, actually. In fact, I wrote the "two strikes" separately as part of Zoetic Press's Write Like You're Alive program, a challenge to do something creative every day for a month. So in July of 2018, I wrote 31 poems under the title "Abecedarian," and four years later during August of 2022, I did 31 more poems called "The Lure of the Mechanical."      A little thought, though, showed me that the first person narrator in both groups was the same guy, haplessly flailing after similar things in di...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      And by "now," he means July 11th. That's the date I think we're all currently aiming for to get to end of this thing.      As for the whole "supernatural" versus "preternatural" thing, that distinction's been floating around in the comic since the days when it was actually a comic. Howlett, for instance, talks about it briefly almost exactly 20 years ago near the middle of our 4th storyline, " Dust Bunny ," and it's come up here and there ever since.

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      So, it looks like Kain, Eduard, and Coil against assorted ancient magical dinosaurs. Anyone wanna take bets?

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      I hope someone's got a way out of this. Preferably in the next two weeks, too...

The Terebinth Story Archive      Of course, for a full chant royal, we'd need three more stanzas like those two plus a five-line envoi. Maybe next week?

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Let's set our sights on page 99 for the end of this story, shall we? That's two more weeks: plenty of time for explosions.

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Apparently I was wanting to draw all five of our main characters. It's been quite some time, after all.

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Yeah, definitely not gonna be finished by page 90...

The Terebinth Story Archive      My favorite thing about these "adversarial villanelles" is that it's mathematically impossible for all the participants to have the same number of lines. I mean, unless you've got 19 characters involved and they each get 1 line apiece...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      This might be the first time this year we've had all five of our main cast members "on screen" at the same time. I guess they must sense the end of the storyline approaching, though I don't think we'll get to the end by page 90...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      I've been wanting to work dinosaurs into the Daily Grind universe for almost two decades, but the closest I ever came was a brief mention on these pages near the middle of our 8th storyline, " Under Hill ," back in January of 2006. Now, though, I've got the perfect opportunity, and isn't Kain lucky that he was here for the occasion?

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      I'm pretty sure that means we're about to see what these dang aitu look like. Hope I can find some appropriate drawing references...

The Terebinth Story Archive      It's been a while since we saw Kestel, Terpsichore. and Lumilla here being narrators, but I'm thinking this might be a sign that we've moved into Act III of our current melodrama.

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      I'm thinking we might be getting on toward wrapping this thing up here in the next couple weeks: page 90 or so, let's say. Because once the aitu show up, that's when the party gets started! Or in this case, gets close to ending...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Rengain Tswee Gweet, for those who aren't familiar with Quillinese folk legends, was the quintessential Bairn. Kain's been a fan forever , or at least since the middle of our 82nd storyline, " Safety Net ."

The Daily Grind Table of Contents       Definitely should've thought this through a little longer, Kain...

The Terebinth Story Archive      But yeah, running in the right direction might be a good idea...