Mike Walker

Submitting short stories. Polishing a novel. In Chicago. From Cleveland. 82nd Airborne veteran. Husband. Dad.

More dudes should write and read fiction.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

I'm currently unpublished.

I started submitting in April. I've gotten three tiered and two personal rejections. Fourteen were form rejections.

These are the seven short stories under active submission:

Err on the Side of Living Tissue
Host
No More Violence Until After Mass
Spokane
The Beast of All Beasts
Vince Vaughn Made Me Kill Sergeant Kreiter
Yardwork and Advanced Corporal Punishment

I hope to eventually look back on this stage with nostalgia, but at the moment, it's pretty brutal.

On a positive note, this process has made me trim a lot of fat. The latest submissions are much leaner than their early versions.

Anyway, if you're a fellow writer, please follow. I'll follow back and read your stuff.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

From "Impractical Choices" by Raheem Omeiza

“I understand you tried to kill yourself,” he said. “Why?”

I was taken aback by his directness.

“You understand wrong. You are confusing stupidity with sinister intent.”

“Stupidity? How?”

“A woman who doesn’t know how to swim should never go into the sea. Side effects of stupidity include, but are not limited to, drowning.”

He laughed out loud.

“Well, yeah. That is stupid. But are you absolutely sure you weren’t trying to kill yourself?”

“Yes, I’m positive. There are far more fun ways to die than drowning.”

https://t.co/cwstSXnWfF

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@Brttnyblm @malsmart @MaudlinHouse Amazing. Congratulations!

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

I puke again.  With macrobiotic vomit on my breath, I text my boyfriend chill and meditative strings of words such as, “Help me, I think I am going to die within the next two minutes.”  He immediately responds, “Baby I love you so much.”  I hate him.

Gold.

https://t.co/HgXgIeL6M6

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@TheWriterPepin7 Will do.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

I'm currently unpublished.

I started submitting in April. I've gotten three tiered and two personal rejections. Fourteen were form rejections.

These are the seven short stories under active submission:

Err on the Side of Living Tissue
Host
No More Violence Until After Mass
Spokane
The Beast of All Beasts
Vince Vaughn Made Me Kill Sergeant Kreiter
Yardwork and Advanced Corporal Punishment

I hope to eventually look back on this stage with nostalgia, but at the moment, it's pretty brutal.

On a positive note, this process has made me trim a lot of fat. The latest submissions are much leaner than their early versions.

Anyway, if you're a fellow writer, please follow. I'll follow back and read your stuff.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@peregrin_zach Thank you for that.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@TheAlexGraeme Thanks. It's the most recent, but I think it might be the first to land somewhere.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

Spot on. And all free-thinking individuals should cheer the smashing of the Overton window.

I yearn for the day when five normal people can sit at a friendly table with the expectation that none of the other four has an overlapping worldview.

Agreeing with exactly half the population is a bizarre phenomenon and should be scrutinized.

"Possibility space" is a decent coinage, but I wish we didn't need a name for it. It should be less remarkable.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@effthealgorithm Your post > your frustration. Great analysis.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@KGRussellwrites Thanks for the context. I haven't chuckled yet, but I'm still writing and undaunted.

Congrats on Sweet Witchteen!

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@Inkspotpub I love the premise.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@JosephUmoh_ I like your optimism, and I have no doubt. There's a big appetite for African Lit. Keep writing.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@lovesettlement I did. I read the Vietnam piece - From Here to Whatever. Good voice. I liked friend tiers.

I also like the recurring demon motif.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@dmitriykogan Solid list. You're missing Hoosiers.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

This made me smile, despite the unwarranted assault on the Goo Goo Dolls.

https://t.co/0FIFVkyzsM
#shawnscottsmith #mrbullbull #bull

Sounds like something Nick Cage would do.

[Peter DeMarco @PDMwriter]

I love the graphic that @rejectionlit used for my story "The Smart Kid." Would look nice as a t-shirt or poster. Thank you again @dt_robbins and @felishonaleash
https://t.co/7FANT9CRS6

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

@travisjcohen Yes, please do.

[Jay Anderson @TheProjectUnity]

David Lynch's Diagram for Transcendental Consciousness.

One of the greatest, easiest to understand explanations for how our reality is made of MIND first, MATTER second.

I promise this is genuinely worth your time.

[Mike Walker @MikeWalker_CLE]

Great paragraph in a cool story.

"The thing on the hospice bed was an imposter; it wasn’t my mom. I couldn’t stand to be near it. The little red mole near her eye, which had been practically neon in its vibrance, had turned a dull brown. Later I learned it was because the blood, which gave it its color, stopped circulating beneath it. Life folded itself up in so many unexpected places, making itself known only in absence. I have the same red dot on my back; one day it too will turn to mud."

#splitlip #AlexandraDosSantos

[Split Lip Magazine @splitlipthemag]

Alexandra Dos Santos reads "Dolls Like Chucky" featured in our ✨ JUNE ISSUE ✨