Hello.

This is my first post here. Obviously. I don't have much planned for this particular entry. I just didn't want a.) for the blog portion of the site to be empty for long or b.) to kick this off with a wild tangent (which is what I plan to do here). See, that's the thing. Some birds can't be caged. (Really, if I was any bird, I'd be a penguin because I'm afraid to fly. Maybe a chicken. Yeah, I think I'd be a chicken, because I also hate the cold.) I want to talk in-depth about my own writing, which I try (poorly) to avoid over at LSB. I think Ash Catcher has done a phenomenal job keeping the blog section of that site alive and the more I think of it, the more I'd love to see a chorus of diverse voices over there that doesn't include my own. The site/company was always intended to be a selfless endeavor for Maureen and I. That's practically impossible in the art world, especially when we spent a good year or so struggling for submissions. We no longer have that problem, so, regular content from me is no longer essential. I'll still post over there for company-related things or more altruistic subjects. I want to be a backseat driver over there and over here, I'm behind the wheel. (Wow, I really can't come up with a more original metaphor? Pa-thetic.) 

So, I'm taking a step aside from Long Shot Books as a content creator, to some degree, so that I can mouth off over here. LSB isn't going anywhere and neither am I. This just allows me a place other than Facebook to talk mad shit about my own writing without desecrating the timelines of everyone I know. I have a lot of content I've been posting over there while contemplating if I should just start my own site that I'll probably move this way. 

To your left is my favorite possession, Dirty the Monkey. I've had him since my single digits and written in marker on his foot, like one of Andy's toys in Toy Story, is my maternal grandmother's final message to me, "Bye Todd." Below is a much better article than this one about my long friendship with him.
​https://www.theodysseyonline.com/dirty-the-monkey