Talking to myself again...

So, as far as news, we have a brand spankin' new website: sbannethology.com

Other than that, I've been thinking about submitting a piece to The Kenyon Review, but you know what, they don't take multiple submissions and they'll do their best to look at your wretched piece within four months.

The Tin House has decided they want to do their bit for bookstores, so they want you, the submitter to go fetch them a receipt of a book you bought from one recently, otherwise explain to them in 100 words why you're such a bastard you don't do your part to save your noble, local besieged bookstore.

Will I get a prize for the best goddamn 100-word apology?

Sorry I am feeling punchy. Sure, it is a worthwhile cause and it will probably make a difference. But will it? Do we really need external saviors? White nights descending from the sky in their shiny armor and magical bullets to slay the cruel, modernistic army of "progress" marketing itself to a frothing populace, incapable of independent thought, slavish in their belief that if only they had things more shiny, more new and different, their miserable lives would be better and set apart as examples by their hitherto seemingly better-off neighbors.

Will it slay the Kindles, the iPads and the Nooks, the Amazons and the Googles of this world?

Really? If only we did our part, us aspiring writers, countless in number, invincible in strength, our wallets bulging with our day jobs' salaries, pouring our wealth into the local bookstores, then, only then, will we save them; only then will we grab the throats of the big boys of books, lift them off their feet and shake them from side to side like a dog with its chew-toy, and then slam them back to the ground.

Will we?

Like the supporters of Julian Assange doing their puny best against Amazon for denying their hero his space in Amazon's cloud?

Uh huh, sure, we will!