So uhhhhh I just signed with a literary agent? So that's cool?

That's right: I just signed with a literary agent! The Kepner Agency was so impressed with my Irish Boston supernatural punk rock noir tentatively titled Pints of 'Gansett Make You Strong  that they want to make something happen with it!

Excuse me while I go dance over here in the corner.

In the meantime, you can listen to the official unofficial Pints of 'Gansett Make You Strong soundtrack to tide you over, 'cause publishing takes a while.

If you care about #DiversityInSF — or diversity in general — you should help make this awesome anthology happen.

The sequel to Locus and World Fantasy Award-nominated book Long Hidden edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older, Hidden Youth is a new anthology featuring fantastical short stories from the margins of history — young adult sci-fi and fantasy stories about oppressed and marginalized groups throughout the generations.

Also, it includes a story by me. "An Baile na mBan" is about Irish Travellers, Irish Nationalism, abortion, and, uhhh, sketchy púca faeries using women to enact their revenge on the Provisional IRA. Obviously.

Did I mention that this will be my first professionally-published (as in, paying SFWA rates) piece of original fiction?

So as you might figure, it means a lot to me. But it won't actually happen unless the anthology reaches its Kickstarter goal of $23,000 by Wednesday, July 6, 2016.

tl;dr — help a brother out, and tell your friends to do the same. KTHXBYE.

My latest comic book, "iCthulhu," is now on sale!

Grayhaven Comics' latest anthology issue, The Gathering: Sci-Fi Volume 3 is now on sale, and features a short sci-fi action comic by me and my good friend Dave Ganjamie!

Dave and I were bouncing ideas around when he made the intentionally-absurd suggestion of doing a "Futuristic Lovecraftian steampunk horror story." I decided to take this challenge literally...and thus, iCthulhu was born!

Our story is just one part of a 48-page anthology featuring tons of great creators, and the whole thing will only cost you $3.50, so what are you waiting for? Buy it before it becomes a rare and valuable collector's item!

A little sneak peek at Dave's awesome artwork...

Buy My Poetry In This Month's Issue of ASIMOV'S Science Fiction Magazine!

My time travel love poem "I Loved You More Last Time" is now available in the February 2015 issue of ASIMOV'S Science Fiction Magazine (along with a poem by my Clarion classmate and recent winner of Apex Magazine's Story Of The Year, Marie Vibbert). 

As far as I can tell, Asimov's is erm, not very good at making online purchases easy for anyone. But you can pick up the current issue or subscribe on Kindle, Nook, and iTunes Newsstand (unfortunately, I don't know the exact cut-off date for when the current issue ceases to be "current," and I can't figure out how buy specific back issues either). I'll also have a small stash of hard copies available for direct purchase (more info to come).

Performances, Publications, Panels, and More!

There's lots going on at Camp Thom Dunn (is there ever not?); and so, I interrupt your regularly scheduled weird nerd pop culture discoveries & progressive political rantings to, ya know, talk about myself for a minute.

• As previously mentioned, my play True Believers is now available for purchase through Indie Theater Now, and you should totally go buy it, because it only costs $1.29, so why the hell not? (I'm also considering making the script available through Amazon's self-publishing portal, if there's demand for it, even though I do have some ethical issues with Amazon as a company. But dammit if they're not cheap and convenient)
   
• I will be returning to rock the Mortified Boston Christmas show on Friday, December 19 at Oberon in Harvard Square. Tickets are $15 and they're going fast, so hurry up if you want to see me play some really, really, really bad and embarrassing songs I wrote in high school! Which obviously you do.
   
• My words will grace the stage for the third consecutive year in the Boston One-Minute Play Festival (#OMPF). The festival is the brainchild of Dominic D'Andrea, who produces these little bursts in most major cities across the country. It's a fun night — as writers, we're not really given any prompts other than "60 seconds, one page, MAX," so it's neat to see what kind of thematic patterns emerge through that. It's a neat way to gauge the temperature of a city, and the topics that consume its collective consciousness. My two scripts will be directed by Stephanie LeBolt and Hatem Adell, and they'll be performed on Monday and Tuesday, January 5 & 6, at Boston Playwrights Theater.
   
• I'm also excited to announce that I'll be featured on a whole bunch of panels this year at Arisia, Boston's largest and most diverse science fiction & fantasy convention, January 17 — 20 at the Westin Boston Waterfront. Here's where you can find me (when I'm not at the bar or in bed, I mean):
  • Neurodiversity in SF/F — Saturday @ 11:30am in Marina 2
  • DC Comics on the Small Screen — Saturday @ 5:30pm in Marina 2
  • Behind the Bristol boards: Comics as  Profession — Saturday @ 7pm in Marina 4
  • We Know (Philip K.) Dick — Sunday @ 10am in Marina 2
  • Superman & Religion — Sunday @ 11:30am in Burroughs
  • Story Autopsy — Sunday @ 2:30pm in Alcott
  • The Medium & The Message — Sunday @ 5:30pm in Hale
  • Writing & Racial Identity — Monday @ 1pm in Hale
     
• AND SPEAKING OF COMICS! I have 2 more comics coming out through Grayhaven Press — one is a story in their Science Fiction anthology, and the other is a super villain story featured in their "You Are Not Alone" anti-bullying anthology. Both comics will feature art by my buddy Dave Ganjamie, and he and I particularly pumped to actually have some comics going on, after talking about it for the last couple of years. I'm not sure when these comics will actually be published, as I'm currently working on the scripts, but of course, and let you know and link to 'em when they are.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dave Ganjamie

Oh yeah, and then after all that stuff's done, I'm getting married, but ya know, that's a minor event.

Good News For True Believers! (the play, I mean. I guess the people, too)

Two, count 'em, TWO  big announcements about everyone's favorite geek culture serio-comedy theatrical romp (that being True Believers, which I wrote): 

• I have officially signed a digital publishing contract with the wonderful people at Indie Theater Now, an online extension service of the New York Theatre Experience, Inc. that presents, promotes, and preserves new American plays in script form. The full script will be up soon (possibly along with some of my other plays?), but for now, you can check out my playwright profile, anyway.
   
• True Believers will be receiving another public play reading in New York City, this time with the fine folks at Animus Theatre. It's the season kick-off for their 2014-2015 New Play Reading Series, so if you're in or around the New York area, please come check it out! The reading will place this coming Monday, October 27 at Bunga's Den on W 14th Street in Manhattan beginning at 7:30pm. So BE THERE, or make your own Hipster Slave Leia or Steampunk Jesus costume for Halloween.

And if for some reason you found your way to this website / blogpost and have no idea what I'm talking about, well, you're in luck, because I've got a whole section of my website dedicated to True Believers, complete with script samples, production photos, reviews, and more.

For the Cyborg Head of Stan Lee!

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Zach Winston as Billy cosplaying Galactus.

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Rachel Katherine Alexander as Chloe cosplaying Slave Leia with a hoodie, 'cause it's cold.

Now On Sale - "In A Single Bound: Superheroes For Greater Boston...And Beyond!"

(wow I can't believe I totally forgot to post about this back in April) (yes I realize I've been neglecting this site) (I could have sworn I posted about this when it happened...)

I recently published another comic book story, this one with Boston Comics Roundtable / Ninth Art Press and featuring artwork by my friend Jim Gallagher. Our story is part of an anthology series about Boston-centric superheroes, and what's even cooler is that our superhero "Louie the Lone Dervish" (inspired by Louie With The Tricycle, a popular homeless guy around these parts) is featured right there on the cover on the anthology as well. Not bad for a story about a crazy superhobo on a refurbished three-wheeler!

The comic was originally set to have its debut at Boston Comic-Con back in April, but, well, that kind of got postponed because, you know, all kinds of craziness. So it's now available online following the re-scheduled Boston Comic-Con from last weekend. You can pick up a copy of "In A Single Bound" #2 over at the Ninth Art Press website, a scant $6 for 36 glorious black-and-white pages done entirely by Boston-based writers & artists.

UPDATE: this blog post managed to make the rounds today, thanks to the magical powers of the Internet, and I was interviewed by Boston Magazine about it. You know, 'cause I'm awesome n'shizz. Check out the interview over on their website!

I'm Back Now, And I Brought T-Shirts For Everybody!

I have a confession to make. I didn't really bring t-shirts for everybody. Although I do have these sweet new business cards! So that's cool, right? I know I've been slacking (again) lately (again) with keeping this website updated with all of my various doin's. But it's not like I've not been not doing things (...or is it?)! Instead, I've just been too busy doing things to, ya know, write about doing things. It's kind of why I hate meetings in general, because I'd rather be doing things, than talking about doing things. So this website's kind of like a meeting then. Except I don't hate it; in fact, I quite love my little website here. So really, not like a meeting at all.

(shut up Thom) Okay so here's a brief rundown of where the hell I've been:

• My very short play, Stumped, was performed as part of a staged reading series to celebrate Company One's production of Hookman.
• My debut comic book story, Not Dead Yet, finally saw print in GrayHaven Comics' sci-fi anthology, The Fifth Dimension! Also the first printing already sold out, which means maybe someday you'll be able to sell that shit on eBay for like $20 (but probably not)
• I did a totally awesome article for Quirk Books comparing Samuel Beckett (the playwright) to Sam Beckett (the time traveling protagonist from Quantum Leap) and it was totally awesome. Don't believe me? Ask the former executive director of the American Theatre Wing!
• I also started doing some writing for Tor.com, with my first article being a roundup of great sci-fi/fantasy rock bands (so basically my two favorite things, combined. If only there was more beer!)
• We did another staged reading of my play True Believers as part of ImprovBoston's Geek Week celebration. It was really great to hear the play out loud in front of different kind of crowd, as it helps me figure out what kind of changes I need to make to the script before the world premiere this summer at the Factory Theatre (July 12 - 21! Get yer tickets while they're hot! Just kidding, they're not on sale yet). The lovely producing folks at Vagabond Theatre Group have a post up over at their website about the event so you can catch up on all the happening. There's also the first part of an instructional series about how to make your very own The Cyborg Head of Stan Lee, which actually comes a lot more in handy than you might think.
• Did I mention that I launched a new website for the Huntington, and that our world premiere production of The Luck of the Irish was extended, and sold out almost every night? For being, ya know, "just my day job" or whatever, sometimes it keeps me pretty busy as well.
• Plus Cupcake! So many things, so very busy with this wonderfully little world-premiere-musical-that-could. We raised $6,000 in our Kickstarter campaign (we were going for $3,750...whoops!), and we were the featured show this past Friday on Goldstar. You may have seen some of my sexy posters around town as well (just don't tell Grant that I photoshopped his arm a bit...) Previews start this Thursday, May 10!
• AND, to top it all off, I've only got like 50 pages left to read in Infinite Jest (finally! Jesus God this book is epic), so I'm gonna go finish that right now and hopefully conquer my crippling fear (no pun intended) of paraplegic Quebecers.

In the News!

It's a good week for being me! I opened up a print copy (on newsprint! Gets on your hands!) of Boston's Weekly Dig, only to find that they reprinted my tweet to them about my Haiku Beer Reviews from last week's Beer Summit (for which I had tickets from the Dig), and they even printed one of the haikus (for ZOMBIE KILLER Meade from B.Nektar) in their pages. This marks the second time that the Dig has printed one of my silly poems (the last time being in October, 2010 in their "Oh, Cruel World!" column, wherein I expressed my violent rage about a bicycle accident in verse) which all just makes me think that they should give me a job as "Official Writer of Silly Verse" or something. Vagabond Theatre Group, who is the producing the upcoming reading of my play True Believers, posted a lovely and thoughtful blogpost about my play, and the trend (or lack thereof) of comic book-related stories in theatre. It's a brief but flattering piece, that you should check out if you have the chance!

Coming up: even more news that I can't quite officially announce yet. Hollerr.

Broetry: Poetry, for Dudes!

Congratulations to my good friend (and fellow FiveByFiveHundred co-founder and Daily Genoshan founder) Brian McGackin, whose first book, Broetry, is available today from the lovely folks at Quirk Books! Broetry is one of the those things that, when Brian first told me about the idea, I kind of wanted to punch him in the teeth, because of how stupidly brilliant and simple it is. It is quite literally poetry, but written for, well, dudes. There's no waxing philosophical about flowers in the spring, but there is plenty of Mama Celeste Frozen Pizzas, comic books, X-Box 360, and HaiKougars to go around. I've been close to this project from its earliest moments, and can honestly say that it is every bit as fantastic as it sounds, and I encourage everyone to pick up a copy (because I guarantee you will find something in it that you enjoy). Also, as an added bonus, my name is in the book, so that's cool, right?

In case you're (somehow) still not convinced, here are a few samplings from the book that I think you might enjoy:

• I'll Take Crazy Bitches for $800, Alex
• When Patrick Stewart Ruled the World
• Stopping by WaWa on a Snowy Evening
• Ode to the Ugly Bitch Talking to Me at this Party that I Don’t Even Want to Be at in the First Place But Was Dragged to By My Friend Because Some Girl He Wants to Fuck Might Be Stopping By Later On If The Place She’s Supposed to Go to First With Her Friends Sucks or Runs Out of Beer Although This Place Also Sucks and is About to Run Out of Beer Which Leads Me to Believe That My Friend is Shit Out of Luck Tonight But I Still Have to Stand Here Like an Idiot and Wait Just in Case That Ho Shows Up Wasted and DTF or Something Because I’m the DD and I Don’t Want My Friend to Cry About it All Weekend Like a Pussy