Hello all, and welcome to October 2025, which feels an awful lot like June 2025 here in West Michigan, with daytime temperatures staying in the mid- to upper 70s through the middle of next week. So it goes.

For the past year I have been involved with the Grand River Poetry Collective. We are slowly ramping up our events, and have even published a few books. The latest release is David Cope‘s Moonlight Rose in Blue: Collected Poems 1971-2024, and it is absolutely gorgeous! We have published a total of three books so far, with several more in the works.

Last Friday we held an open mic at Hermitage at Diamond, which is mid-renovation and thus the perfect venue for the rough-and-tumble world of poetry. I read an older poem, “Afternoon Traffic,” which was published a few years ago by Portage Magazine. That is the first time I have read a poem in public since before the COVID lockdown of 2020. It felt…good! And being around other poets, in person, was exactly what I needed after an absolutely hellish summer. There will be another open mic, as well as a reading and signing for all of the books we have published so far, this Friday (October 3).

The Grand River Poetry Collective is spinning up and online literary journal called The River. I am assisting in this endeavor which means that after six years of down-time (Caffeinated Press and The 3288 Review closed down at the end of 2019) I am again in the publishing business. So far? Feels pretty good. When the project goes live we will post the link and shout it to the world.

In other literary news, I just re-upped my membership to the Poetry Society of Michigan after several years absent. Involvement in one literary project does seem to act as an attractor for other literary projects.

Magical ConFusion, the 2026 iteration of the ConFusion Science Fiction Convention, will take place from January 30 to February 1, 2026 at the Sheraton hotel in Novi, Michigan. Once again I am the Head of Operations, which means I have about four months of quiet time, followed by four days of chaos. The “magic” in Magical ConFusion, references the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, so if you have the opportunity to attend, bring your decks! We are accepting applications for panelists, as well as ideas for panel topics. We also have plenty of room for volunteers and staff members. ConFusion is a very writerly convention, and just about my favorite event of the year.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for October 2025 is: What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

I think my favorite written work is the unpublished novel I wrote back in 2018, called Neighbors: A Malediction. It was a lightly fictionalized account of my interactions with an obnoxious neighbor over several years. It was my favorite, because the words seemed to flow frictionlessly and I never felt a moment of writer’s block or hesitation. I think this was because, being in the middle of this frustrating, maddening situation, the writing process felt more like memoir or Gonzo journalism than like writing a work of fiction.

And the first draft (which so far is the only draft) is pretty good! Certainly better than any of the other first drafts gathering dust in my hard drive. If I had three months of dedicated time I could whip it into shape to send off to beta readers. Times being what they are, if I dedicated myself to the task in my free moments I could probably reach that point by next summer.

With the Month of Writing (formerly known as NaNoWriMo) on the horizon I have thought about editing Neighbors during that time, but instead I will probably do what I did a couple of years ago, and use my Story Prompt Generator to come up with an idea a day to whip my writing muscles back into shape.

 

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