Feb. 27, 2017: I received notification today that my story "The Science Hour" has been selected a finalist for Mid-America Review's Sherwood Anderson Award. It caught me by surprise as the story is the darkest piece I've ever written. Maybe the current state of the country - symptomized by a deranged president - has put the judges in a dark mood.
Aug 8, 2016: "Measuring Up", a story I kept on the shelf for 6 years before finally submitting to Bosque a few months ago, will appear in the Fall issue.
May 18, 2016: Literary blogger Ann Graham has written a very nice review of my story, "Henry's Ghosts", published in the latest issue of December Magazine. You can read it here.
Sept 25, 2015: I submitted two novels for the William Faulkner William Wisdom First Novel Award, Ridgeland in the completed novel category and Trencadis in the novel-in-progress category. Both were selected finalists, and Trencadis made the short list, but, alas, neither won.
Marina Ginesta, 17 years old, on the rooftop of the Hotel Colon in Barcelona, 1936. She died two years ago last January at 94 in Paris. Although the picture to the left became well-known; indeed, graced the cover of a book about the Spanish Civil War, she was unaware of its existence until a journalist told her about it when she was 85.
Anarchist militia after defeating the attempted military coup in Barcelona in July 1936. On July 19, 1936, high-ranking Spanish generals, including Franco, attempted a coup against the duly elected Republican government. The coup was quickly quashed in most of Spain, including in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, but succeeded in Andalusia and in parts of the north and northwest. It wasn't the Republican government that put down the coup, but ordinary workers who took to the streets to fight the insurgents. In Barcelona these workers were overwhelming members of the anarchist CNT (Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo).
Anarchist women in the Spanish Civil War. Note the traditional anarchist caps on two of the women.
July 16, 2015: I just received word from December magazine that my short story, "Henry's Ghosts" is a finalist for the Curt Johnson Fiction Award. Joyce Carol Oates will judge.
"The Genie at Low Tide" now has 17 reviews on Amazon, all 5 stars.
Nov 19, 2014: I did an interview for Wordpress's new feature, "Speaking of Marvels" some time back which has just gone live. Click on interviews to access it.
October 15, 2014: Ploughshares has just released Omnibus 2, it's second collection of Ploughshares Solos, which contains "The Genie at Low Tide". If you like stories and/or well-written essays, I highly recommend you order a copy. Among my personal favorites are Brendan Jones' novella (the longest story in the collection) "The Outside Passage" and Aurelie Sheehan's "This Blue", but really, every piece in the collection is time well-spent.
I see Amazon has raised the price of the e-story to $1.99. But it's still cheap, so if you haven't yet downloaded a copy of "The Genie at Low Tide" please do so. It's a bargain.
Press Release: Sept. 1, 2011. Paul Byall wins The Porter Fleming Short Story Award. The final judge, Cecelia Tichi, Professor of literature at Vanderbilt, cited the story for its "skillful combination of allusion and specificity, its deft handling of time changes and its plotting."
A few days after the release of "The Genie" I got a call from one Linda Sickler at our local rag, The Savannah Morning News. Linda wanted to do an interview, so I asked her to email me some questions. You can read the interview here.
