I’ll be honest- I had no intention of making a post like this. However, despite the two year anniversary of my most recently published essay rapidly approaching, this extinct blog still not-infrequently earns new subscribers.
I’m deeply honored that you guys have enjoyed and apparently continue to enjoy my writing. This site was my first attempt at publishing any of my work, and I’m still over the Moon that it was so well-received.
But I have no more to say here, and don’t want to leave any of you disappointed.
I started Mellow Brick Road for nonfiction essay-writing, mainly about local Philadelphia folklore, and paleontology/cryptozoology. The latter wound up superseding the former, and for a few brief months it flourished.
There are a few reasons I stopped writing here, and I won’t bore you with all of them. The main issue is that nonfiction writing simply isn’t my greatest joy in life.
I’m a storyteller at heart. I have always, for as long as I can remember, written stories. Essay-writing is something I can do, but it’s not nearly as fun as fashioning a good old fictional yarn.
That’s the main reason why most of the essays on here follow some sort of narrative arc, rather than being a dry recital of information. The information is all accurate, I did not embellish or fabricate any details, but I conveyed the facts more in the form of a story than an academic paper. And it worked out really well for awhile! But, alas, the allure of fiction-writing is inescapable. The Muse demands fiction from me, and I cannot resist Her will.
Anyway, this is all a long-winded way of saying- this blog is retired, there are no more longform paleontology essays coming forthwith.
To my new and old subscribers, you can safely unsubscribe without worry over hurting my feelings. Declutter your inbox!
Or…
… you can subscribe to my new blog.
When I gave into the fiction writing itch, I really gave in. I am a fiction writer now. For about a year, I have been regularly posting short stories and poetry on another blog called Whatever Blues, which, if you are interested in reading fiction, I humbly beseech you subscribe to.
The subject matter of the stories varies wildly, but I assure you that many of them feature dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, so it’s not terribly different from this blog. As with here, there is no paywall- I just write because I love to write!
Below is a complete archive list of my stories published to-date. If any of these sound interesting to you, once again please consider subscribing to Whatever Blues.
Perihelion- The story of a grieving man and his German Shepherd dog going for a final walk on the eve of a cosmic cataclysm.
Our Love Is Like A Star- A poem about the love that lingers after loss.
What Can Happen In A Second- Describing a series of disconnected events happening simultaneously across the world in the space of a single second.
Sable- Three individuals- a cabinboy, a cook with a shady background, and a Newfoundland dog- narrowly survive a shipwreck in the late 1600s and wash ashore on Sable Island.
Endling- A chronicle of the life of the last woolly mammoth on Earth.
Purgatorius- The dinosaurs are extinct. Two survivors- a snake and a stem-primate- navigate the recovering world in their own ways.
Thunder Horse- The ghost of an ancient rhinoceros returns to haunt the Great Plains in the form of a storm deity.
The Spiderplant Chronicles- A young faerie girl is trying very hard to keep her houseplant from dying, as part of an important test by the Seelie Court.
Dispatches From 2027 A.D.- A glimpse at a typical Twitter timeline from the year 2027.
Molly- A poem about a beautiful lady who only seems to exist by night.
Mists of Time- A collection of four vignettes featuring a cast of characters widely scattered across prehistory.
Aisling- A naturalistic lullaby.
Paraflight- A female Velociraptor runs into trouble while hunting a small mammal, and stumbles upon the origin of flight.
Birdsong- An ode to the birds.
Theropoda- Five tales revolving around the daily lives of theropod dinosaurs.
The Veldt- A magical realist novelette about a young English lady on safari who struggles to navigate the imperialist landscape and the maze of her own mind.
The Fall- Written in the form of a fictional chapter of the Book of Genesis, this story explores in-depth what might have happened between the creation of Eve and the eating of the forbidden fruit.
Blood Memory- A vignette about a mated pair of Titanis “terror birds” whose home is destroyed in a volcanic eruption.
Stheno- A five-part urban fantasy suspense thriller centering on a young woman named Kylie McKenna who has an unfortunate encounter with a gorgon while walking her dog on the streets of Philadelphia.
That’s all, and thanks for the fun ride!