It’s always an interesting exercise to Google yourself. A little narcissistic, perhaps, and possibly fraught with peril if there are things out there about yourself that you’d rather not find, but who can honestly say he’s not curious about his own Web presence (or lack thereof)?
I can’t. So I Googled myself. And was pleased to find some nice, easy links to stories I’ve published online. A lot of hits focused around my short story Chowbang, which was published in the Fall 2008 issue of JMWW, collected into their third annual anthology (available for purchase, incidentally, here), and nominated for the StorySouth Million Writers Award (it did not, sadly, place, although Jessica Anya Blau’s excellent Number 7, also in the same anthology, was a finalist). I also found a link to an article about the launch party for that anthology, which took place at Cyclops in Baltimore and where all of the writers, including me, read our contributions.
And then I found an unexpected gem. A short review of Chowbang on a blog entitled Short Story Reader, which I’ve never read before. I love this site, and not just because my review was good. I mean, it was good, very good—my story got a nice write-up and five out of five stars. But what I love about this site is that the person who’s keeping it, Jon Morgan Davies, is doing a damn impressive job of collecting and intelligently commenting on stories from all over the Web. Take some time to read through his reviews and the linked stories…you won’t be sorry that you did.
Regarding the review of Chowbang, though, I just have to say that this is the first actual “review” I’ve ever read of my own work that wasn’t coming from a writing group or editor giving personal feedback. It was definitely a nice thing to hear. I probably wouldn’t be feeling the same way about it had it been more critical, of course, but hey. I’ll take what I can get and enjoy it while I can.
You can read the review (and more of the blog) here.