shameless self-promotion

So, in news other than writing my friend Toby and I have been working on starting a vegan chocolate business.

Bum's Candies is officially up and open for business!

Please, visit our etsy shop here and our fellow blogspot here, any feedback would be great or if you have any flavor suggestions we would love to hear them!

Also in other news, tomorrow night I will be participating in an open mic event for my friend Amy's literary magazine Two With Water

The story I'm reading came from a writing prompt that Matt and I did earlier this week. So far they have been almost all helpful and we have written some good stuff from them.

Here is a snippet from that story...

I started to stay up most nights, as late as I could take, doing god knows what, just to avoid the nightly cat fights. It was around that time that I started trying to teach them simple English to try and communicate with them. I talked to them as you would a baby, just learning how to make sounds and form them into ideas.

“You. Cat. Andy.”

“Me. Human. Michael.”

I would point at their tails and say, “Tail. Can you say tail?”

Ralph, who was big and gray and whom I loved more than Andy, seemed more receptive to the lessons. He would mew and cock his head, as if asking me to, “Explain that again? Maybe slower this time and possibly in cat tongue?” His big green eyes curious to the sounds I was making and the response I was looking for. Andy, on the other hand, would just scamper off, looking for food or a toy. He was a very cat-like cat and I guess I resented him for it. He thought only of cat concerns and seemed to be telling me he had no use for this higher knowledge I was wasting his time with.

If you're in Chicago, please come to Cafe Ballou on Western between Division and Chicago around 7pm Tuesday to hear the whole story!