I Think I've Made a Decision

I think I've decided that maintaining two separate blogs makes no sense.  I originally split the Annex off from the Washroom so I could use the Washroom to focus on real-world events at Southwestern College and my own personal rants-and-raves.

The Annex was to be for writing.  But very quickly it became apparent that I wanted my Washroom readers to see what I had up on the Annex, and I began cross-posting every bit of fiction I had posted.

Then - to keep things simple (he says sarcastically) - I created the SWC Board Must Go to seriously focus on the Southwestern College situation.  Because of this fall's election, that blog got 99.5% of my attention, and both the Washroom and Annex suffered.  With the election over, and the side of Justice, Truth, and All Things Good and Decent (our side) victorious, the SWCBMG blog is pretty much stagnant - and will likely remain so.

So now I'm back with my personal blog, and my other personal writing blog.  The Washroom is the home of all this, so I'm going to start folding the Annex back into the original.

There are a few of you who follow the Annex in addition to the Washroom, and a few who do so instead of the Washroom.  I'm going to suggest you might want to change over.  I'm going to start gutting this soon.  I may use it to archive a few things, but likely there won't be much, if any, new pieces going up over here.  It's time to simplify things, and I think this is the best way to do it.

Welcome to the New Writer's Washroom Annex!

After several weeks of frustration with the site where I was archiving my work - and linking to Works-in-Progress, I decided the time had come to change the archives.

In other words, it was time to move the Annex. After trying a few different sites, and considering trying to "host my own URL" and such - which is so far beyond my technical ken that it makes my head hurt, I finally decided on this.

Yes, it's a blog. But, heck, I've pretty much always called the Washroom my 'blogsite.' It's all just terminology to me.

I've made this as user-friendly as I can. In the left-hand side are "starting points" for works-in-progress and for the various types of non-fiction I've written and published. A link to The Pop-Up Prophecy script, and the short film made from it are there as well.

I made the decision not to repost Wasteland, the appalling short story I wrote and had published back in the day, because I'm going to rewrite the damn thing as practice. When it's complete - which shouldn't be long - I'll post it here.

I've also posted an unpublished script, Afterword, which was written by myself and Thomas Beck - one of my good friends and long-time blog members.

For Heroes..., The Wyrd Magnet, and Conduit, each chapter in each work is linked to the next. At the bottom of the Heroes... Prologue is the link to Chapter One. This will be standard operating procedure.

Please look around and check things out. Some of this is fun to read, and some is just informative. I've reposted a couple of items from works here to the main blog, so you can see where this comes from.

It's taken about two days to put this together, link it all, and de-clutter the main blog. I'm fairly well delighted with the results, so I won't be offended if you just want to do some reading here. (Oh, yes, I borrowed a clue from a reader and decided to go with printer-friendly black text-on-white background. You are very welcome.)

Feel free to leave comments here, there, or anywhere you wish. I'm happy to have the readers. At the moment, I'd suggest that if anyone wants to become a "Friend & Member" on the blog, to consider joining at the main one. That will still be the site where most of my work is done. This is primarily to give readers an easy way (finally!) to dig through my stuff.

Welcome to the Annex! Please enjoy!

Heroes... starting point - Prologue - "Darkness"

The Wyrd Magnet starting point - Chapter One - "Sub-culture"

Conduit starting point - Prologue - "Obelisks"

Non-fiction starting point

The Pop-Up Prophecy (script and short film)

Afterword (script only)

Press Releases

These are a few of the press releases I wrote as a freelancer.

El Primero Hotel (B&B based in Chula Vista, California)

Julep Restaurant & Bar (fantastic Jackson-based restaurant)

'Last of the Mississippi Jukes' (blues documentary filmed in Mississippi, broadcast on Starz Networks)

Articles and Features for Other Periodicals

This is some of the work I did for other magazines and periodicals, as a freelance writer.

Cowboy Mouth (New Orleans-based band)

Metal Finishing Service (Jackson-based business)

'Pronounced Cha-Ne' (lifestyle designer)

Planet Weekly Interviews

These are some of my favorite interviews I conducted while writing for Planet Weekly.

David Banner (producer, rapper, actor)

David Cobb (2004 Green Party presidential candidate)

Darrah Johnson (Survivor contestant)

Harvey Johnson (mayor of Jackson, Mississippi)

Dr. Ronald Mason, Jr. (president of Jackson State University)

Rebekah Potter (multi-media artist)

Planet Weekly Columns

These are various columns I wrote for Planet Weekly - under the names "From the Extremes" and "The Bipolar Extremist."

"2004 Post-Election Blahs"

"Adrift on the Sea of Consciousness"

"Bumper-Sticker Politics or the Band That Scared Your Mother Has Sold Out"

"Choose Your Own Election"

"Civil Unions"

"Conventional Migraine"

"Crossroads Film Festival Post-Game Report"

"Deserve vs. Desire"

"A Farewell to Johnny Ramone"

"Geek Flag Ideologies"

"Head vs. Heart"

"The Healing Power of Violence"

"People Are Afraid"

"The Politics of Death"

"The Predator Connection"

"A Random Bit of Twaddle, Geeks, and Frank Melton & the Maytals"

"Run, Rudolph, Run!"

"Santa Claus's Political Affiliations (with Footnotes)"

"Where the Hell Are Them Chemical Weapons?"

Planet Weekly Articles and Features

These are a few of the newspaper articles and feature stories I did as a writer for Planet Weekly.


2004 JSU Juried Student Exhibition Competition (artistic)

The American Astronaut (independent movie)

Jay Fleming (artist)

Brian Fuente (musician)

International Museum of Muslim Cultures (the only museum of its kind in North America)

'Magic on the Court' (feature on wheelchair basketball players)

New Life for Women (rehabilitation center)

New Vibrations (business)

Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer (book review)

'Rugby Gets in Your Blood' (sports)

The Non-Fiction Starting Point

Yes, it's true: I've got quite a bit of non-fiction on this site. I was a columnist, writer - and later the staff writer - for an alternative/community newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi called Planet Weekly. I have also written as a freelancer for other newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. (I've also done some copywriting, but as I don't own those works, I'm not posting any of it here.)

I've broken things into groups. If you want to see some of what I've done, just follow the links. Everything is now hosted on this site.

This isn't everything I've written. In fact it's around 15-20%, but I posted some that I feel proud of, and some that I think reflect the work that I - or the newspaper or periodical - were doing.

I have changed none of the content of the pieces, even if bits are poorly-written, badly-dated, or just cause me to shake my own head. (The one exception is the "New Life for Women" article, and my reasons for changes are listed there.) I have made a few formatting changes - such as italicizing when I forgot to, and removed phone numbers, email addresses, or website addresses that are either no longer in use, or might bring unwanted attention to people in the pieces.

By and large, what you read here is what saw publication. And when I say "publication," I mean print, thank you.

Planet Weekly features and articles.

Planet Weekly columns.

Planet Weekly interviews.

Articles and features from other periodicals.

Press releases.