On John Lennon and our selective, oft-hypocritical, poorly deployed outrage.

Taken from the newly completed essay collection--who wants?--called Glue God: Essays (and tips) for Repairing a Broken Self. The ocean is involved. Arrrr.

That would be American Fiction's 17th contest. Past judges include Charles Baxter, Ann Beattie, Ray Carver, Wallace Stegner, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O’Brien, Louise Erdrich, Clint McCown, Josip Novakovich, Michael White, Elizabeth Strout, and Steve Almond.

Talking about a couple recent pieces in The American Interest and the New York Daily News on Downtown. Apologies for the scratchy voice.

William Wellman's The Ox-Bow Incident seventy-five years later and what it says about our hellish age of unexamined lives.

As a Futurist poet once said, "Everybody lies, everybody dies." And you should not automatically believe anyone--not a woman, not a man, not Grimace, not a space creature, not a talking rock--you don't know very, very well.

The Splinter and the Negro leagues.

A conversation about Fleming's new Conjunctions story "Sequentials," the invention of a new form of fiction, how terror is realized in prose, the manner in which prose orchestrates the sensation of movement, the episodic quality of life and narrative.

An authorized bio that actually works.

A discussion of the two new Aretha Franklin-related pieces in The Daily Beast and the New York Daily News.

As the past year has featured a ton of op-eds, there's now a new Op-ed section. Plus, scroll to the bottom of the main page to sign up for blog updates and the newsletter which will go out every two or three months or so, offering a round up of what's going on with new fiction, new books, new radio, new pieces.

New York Daily News piece on how we play-act grief on social media.

Aretha in Paris.

"Sequentials."

A conversation about Fleming's new op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

Candor + owning what you are going through = A legit chance in this life

A chat about Fleming's new op-ed in USA Today.

"Your mind need not be going." On the subject of 2001: A Space Odyssey and attention spans.

Looking at Sophie Huber's Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes.

As in one.

Ditch the anthem before sporting events, stop overvaluing diversions.

A conversation about Fleming's most recent Beatles pieces, both from July, one in Rolling Stone on a statement-making BBC session from the band, the other from Salon on the well-meaning sadness of Yellow Submarine, as well at the book the book he is writing, Same Band You've Never Known: An Alternative Musical History of the Beatles. Also: Can we agree that Rich Kimball is the best at what he does?

On Jim Brosnan's masterful baseball diary, Pennant Race.

Talking about the new op-ed in the New York Daily News on Laura Ingalls Wilder and what could really kill off culture and human life.

Laura Ingalls Wilder v. the people who would prefer to kill off reading, thought, and a capacity for wonder