Josh Denslow's Blog: New stuff!

Pick up a copy anywhere you buy books! https://www.indiebound.org/book/97817...

NOT EVERYONE IS SPECIAL got its first review! Kirkus Reviews calls it "A collection of heartfelt, deftly composed stories about the human condition." They also compare me to Steinbeck, Bukowski, & Palahniuk, and call my characters "beautiful losers."

Read the whole review here:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

Hey everyone! It is now possible to mark my short story collection NOT EVERYONE IS SPECIAL as to-read in your Goodreads lists!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

My story BINGO from my Magic Can't Save Us series is up at Okay Donkey Magazine. It's about two people meeting in a coffee shop and everything works out great and NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS I PROMISE.

https://okaydonkeymag.com/2018/10/19/...

My story about the possible benefits of eating unicorn meat is up at Catapult: https://catapult.co/stories/fiction-w...

This one about a water sprite, black mold, and very annoying pinched nerve is waiting for you at the BULL site: http://bullmensfiction.com/fiction/on...

Pithead Chapel was kind enough to put up my story about a couple in therapy with a poltergeist: https://pitheadchapel.com/therapy/

My story "Ash" is up in the very first issue of the online journal Benging Genres! Plus, it has a dragon in it. https://bendinggenres.com/2018/02/09/...

Before we got too far into 2018, I thought I'd post links to the three very short stories I wrote that appeared online last year.

The first was at wigleaf which is pretty much my favorite online journal. It's part of a series of what I'm calling "myths", which feature a couple breaking up and a mythical creature. This one has a dead leprechaun and it's called Luck. http://wigleaf.com/201701luck.htm

The second story appeared in Split Lip, which is a newer journal, and I love them more and more with each monthly issue. They have a great aesthetic, an even better sense of humor, and they are maybe the most supportive of their writers than any other publication. This story is called Dorian Vandercleef and when I sent it to them, I had a gut feeling they were going to take it because it seemed like such a good fit. http://www.splitlipmagazine.com/817-j...

My last story of 2017 was called Blurry and it is part of my "myth" collection. It features the Loch Ness Monster. This one appeared at apt online, which is run by my two dear friends who are outspoken and caring and badass editors. It was an honor to publish with them. http://apt.aforementionedproductions....

Thanks for reading! Looking forward to 2018!

As I mentioned before, I've been keeping a list of all the books I have read over the last few years in my notebook. This was actually my wife's idea and something she's been doing for as long as she can remember. The best part about it is being able to just browse through and bring back those memories of the experience.

I was recently talking to my friends Carissa Halston and Randolph Pfaff, editors of apt, about the way we remember books. Carissa has this amazing recall of characters and situations and overall story, whereas I remember the feelings the book pulled out of me. Suddenly Randolph and I realized we were the exact same, and now if I ever want to vaguely talk about something I read two years ago, I know exactly where to go.

But because of this way of reading, I sometimes will have forgotten a book completely without some kind of a prompt. Like someone asking me if I read it or, as is now the case, when I see the title in my list.

Discussion keeps these books alive in my mind and I'm hoping that as I continue to upload my lists into Goodreads, it will generate many conversations not just about story, but about the feelings we had while reading.

I've been on Goodreads since 2010. I'm proud of that. I spend a ton of time reading reviews and searching for my next reads and because of that, this site has become a valuable resource and friend. But I don't have my own presence here, my unique identity.

As a Goodreads Author, I spent years trying to figure out what that looks like. I linked to a blog that I no longer have active, and I dabbled at three word reviews (which I may do again!) What mostly happened though, is that I let my own page go dormant.

Over the last four years, my wife and I had three boys, and even with all the craziness that comes with that, I pushed myself to keep reading and to keep writing. In the back of my journals, I dedicated a page to keep track of the books I had read each year. I continued to publish short fiction and work on three novels. My debut short story collection will arrive in early 2019 from 7.13 Books.

So I've decided what to do. I'm going to double back to those journals and add all the books I've read over the last four years to my Goodreads page. I'll try to do a few reviews as well. Going forward, I will update the books I'm currently reading (I always seem to be about halfway through at least 5 books at any give time) and I will push out links to my published stories that appear online. I want to bring me, Josh Denslow, into the discussion here. Above all, I just want to share my love of reading, and if I'm lucky, find some people on Goodreads who want to read my books as well.

Thank you for this amazing community, and I'll see you out there!