My flash ghost story Desmond was published in Rawhead’s Bloody Bones Special Issue #1

My flash ghost story Desmond was published last week in Rawhead’s Bloody Bones Special Issue #1.

I will be reading a portion of this tale on zoom (Sunday, November 2nd from 12 – 2 PM ET) during the The Launch Party for Rawhead’s Fall 2025 releases, Issue One and Special Issue One: Bloody Bones

It will take place via Zoom on Sunday, November 2nd from 12 – 2 PM ET. You can register for the event here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UUxsrgltTmCKMrSu_7w8tA.

“alien? where did you come from?”, by gryffyn m, Unsplash, 2020

This story started out as a poem called French House Shadows about a haunting at Oberlin back in the nineties. Or was it mass psychosis? Who knows?

I personally experienced some of the more innocuous bits of this haunting but it was the former RA of the dorm who relayed his tale to us impressionable sophomores that has remained with me after all these years.

One of the older students in the dorm was friends with him. She started to tell him about all the weird occurrences happening over winter term. He immediately demanded to speak to us all. He wanted to know who told us about the ghost and Desmond. But honestly no one did. (Or no one did to me). He had just returned to campus from taking off a year for his health. He rationalized that the dorm experienced mass psychosis and it wasn’t a haunting at all. He had also been very sick during the first haunting with pneumonia. But it wasn’t all explainable.

I first completed the fiction version of this story in June 2021 submitting it to The Molotov Cocktail’s Flash Vision Contest. Contests often inspire me to finish a story and even write a new one. If you’re ever uninspired, submit to a contest.

This story of madness and/or ghosts took submitting to 19 places and many revisions to get accepted. It was rejected 16 times (withdrawn twice).

It has been almost 2 years since I’ve gotten a piece accepted. To be fair, I wasn’t submitting enough but this year I set a goal of submitting to 100 places. I’ve made it to 59. In 2024, I only submitted to 22 places and 2023 (when I was last published) to 56.

My point is don’t give up, keep working, revising, reading and submitting. The very process of submitting makes one a better writer.

I wanted to post about this sooner but I’ve been recovering from surgery and contracted food poisoning. Desmond’s revenge, maybe?

Videos of past recent readings

Finally got to videoing (is that a word?) again and here are readings that both Mark and I gave in the recent years. Spoken Word if you’re fancy and we know you’re fancy.

We are also reading again at First Floor Walk Up Reading Series on Monday, April 21st at 7pm at One and One LES (76 E 1st Street, New York, NY 10009). It’s free.

FB event link

Videos of us speaking in public below

First Floor Walk Up Reading Series - Monday, April 21st

Mark and I will be reading fiction at the First Floor Walk Up Reading Series on Monday, April 21st at 7pm at One and One LES (76 E 1st Street, New York, NY 10009)

All the deets below:

First Floor Walk Up Presents Bi-Weekly Readings of
Poetry and Prose at

One and One
76 E. 1st St. @ 1st Ave
F Train to 2nd Ave Station

FREE 

Monday, April 21st, 7 PM
FB event link

Featured writers/poets/creatives’ bios below: 

MEGHAN GRUPPOSO

Originally from the gorgeous woods of southern New Hampshire, Meghan Grupposo holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. She is a co-founder, former COO and co-editor of NeuroNautic Institute Presents and Press. Meghan’s work can be found in her handbound chapbook, Bouquet (NeuroNautic Press), & in various anthologies, including NYC From the Inside (Blue Light Press), arriving at a shoreline and Escape Wheel (great weather for MEDIA), the Dada Journal Maintenant, Issues 14-17 (Three Rooms Press), Love Love Magazine, Polarity, & Rucksack a Global Poetry Patchwork’s multimedia project, Hair in the Wind. She’s a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee. Meghan happily resides in New York City with her two cats.

ANDREA DeANGELIS

Andrea DeAngelis is at times a poet, writer, shutterbug and musician living in New York City. Her writing has recently appeared in Carmina Magazine, Corvus Review, HauntedMTL and Bowery Gothic. Andrea also sings and plays guitar in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com)  who are currently recording their fourth album, Exit Earth. She tries not to disturb her neighbors by putting her guitar amp in the closet.

MARK PURNELL

Mark Purnell is a writer, investor and musician living in New York City. His writing has recently appeared in The Molotov Cocktail and he is currently working on his debut novel. Mark sings, writes and plays piano in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com).


JEFFERY BERG

Jeffery Berg is a writer who lives in Jersey City. He received an MFA from NYU. His poetry has appeared in various journals, including most recently in Pine Hills Review. His film criticism can be found at Film-Forward. His debut poetry collection, RE-ANIMATOR, is forthcoming in 2026 from Indolent Books.


VIRGINIA RANDALL

Virginia Randall grew up on the Lower East Side and her work has appeared in Narratively, Italian-Americana, Straus Newspapers and various blogs. She is a freelance culture writer and former UPI reporter.  This reading takes place where she bought her comics as a kid.

Please note that we’re not necessarily reading in the above order and that the event starts promptly at 7pm and ends around 8pm.

I’m also going to be uploading the past reading we did to YouTube here in the next week or so.

Hope to see you there!

First Floor Walk Up Reading at One and One

Both Mark and I are very excited to be reading at First Floor Walk Up Presents Bi-Weekly Readings of Poetry and Prose at One and One, 76 E. 1st St. at 1st Ave on Monday, February 26th.

The event starts at 7:00 pm and goes to 8pm – See the line-up below –

 

First Floor Walk Up Presents Bi-Weekly Readings of

Poetry and Prose at

One and One

76 E. 1st St. @ 1st Ave

F Train to 2nd Ave Station

FREE 

Monday, February 26th, 7 PM
Facebook Event Link

 

ANDREA DeANGELIS

Andrea DeAngelis is at times a poet, writer, shutterbug and musician living in New York City. Her writing has recently appeared in Carmina Magazine, Corvus Review, HauntedMTL and Bowery Gothic. Andrea also sings and plays guitar in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com) who recently released their third album, Fancy Hercules. She tries not to disturb her neighbors by putting her guitar amp in the closet.

 

MARK PURNELL

Mark Purnell is a writer, investor and musician living in New York City. His writing has recently appeared in The Molotov Cocktail and he is currently working on his debut novel. Mark sings, writes and plays piano in the indie rock band MAKAR (www.makarmusic.com).

 

ALLAN  GRAUBARD

Allan Graubard -- poet, writer and critic -- (just published!): SUN STEP BLACK LAKE (Broken Sleep Books, Wales, UK). In 2022, he appeared as editor and contributor to the international anthology Nigredo. 2020/2019 saw the publication of three books: Western Terrace (Exstasis Editions, Victoria, BC), Language of Birds (Anon Editions, NY/LA), and Into the Mylar Chamber: Ira Cohen (Fulgur, UK).

LAURA WEISS

Laura Weiss is an author and journalist; her work has appeared in numerous newspapers and literary magazines. She was a reporter for CQ Weekly covering Congress and national politics. Laura is the author of Ice Cream: A Global History. Ice Cream has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. She was a nonfiction book reviewer and writer for Publishers Weekly. She is currently a reviewer for Bellevue Literary Review.


Now I have to make a decision on what to read…muahahaha

it will be weird for sure!


Bowery Gothic Reading of Mara (October 30, 2022) - video!

I read my short story Mara for the Bowery Gothic’s Halloween Reading at Von Bar on October 30, 2022.

Let’s go to the video tape! (many of you don’t even get that!)

Throughout my reading, I started to hunch over the mic. I only realized afterwards that the mic stand was falling and as I held onto it and my pages, I started to lean to one side! Ha!

The other contributors were so talented and I loved hearing their pieces. The final reading of the night was of Poe’s The Raven. That was such a funny and unique reading of well know piece. Loved it!

It was so awesome to get back into things, so thankful to have the opportunity.

Please check out Bowery Gothic and have a drink or two at Von Bar.