creative lifestyle blog, literary life, books, art, writing life, vintage, thrifting, horror poetry


The first time I encountered AI generated images was in the fall of 2022. I was in Rockford when my dad was in the hospital and my brother -n-law was sharing funny images on his phone (I'm pretty sure they were silly cats..lol..) and the tech seemed rife with potential, especially in creative capacities. By mid 2023, there were rumblings about the generators--both good and bad, and their base…
Somehow, the week is already disappearing down the rabbit hole, but I am holding on fast, designing books and working fervently on a play script for a deadline in a few days. {Over the weekend, I got another mini-retreat at a hotel while J worked DJ-ing a couple of outdoor events that had really early and late start times that made camping out in Naperville a solid option versus commuting back and…
Told in 17-Year cycles and through three generations of women, this remote cabin ghost story plumbs the ways we harbor our ghosts and how they might just harbor us. Read it at the NEW PLAY EXCHANGE : or subscribe to the digital $3 tier over at Patron for access: (p.s. a print edition should be dropping later in the month.)
When it comes to poetry, my relationship with revising my own work has changed over the years. When I first started, I drafted on paper--usually whatever was at hand, which would have been the backs of leftover handouts and lined notebook paper. I'd then type them up, first on an electric typewriter I'd bought with my high school graduation money. Later on a word processing machine that saved to…
I spent a little time this morning with the already published bits of my Antiquities series--GRANATA and CLOVEN that take their roots in mythology. Part of it was a revisit after seeing a couple screenings of Chrisopher Nolan's take on The Odyssey and one of my favorite recent musicals, Hadestown , on screens for a pro shot stage production. Part of it was also the Calypso project, HERE BE…
This weekend found me holed up for a writing mini-retreat while J worked a wedding gig in Wisconsin, which meant a whole uninterrupted day of working on the zombie/hotel play, which didn't start out with zombies at all, but somehow ended up there, miles away from where I intended it to go (and which I am still enmeshed in timeline edits) . The perks of this set up, and why I love tagging along on…
upcoming DGP cover collage As we crest the midpoint of summer submissions entering the inbox in consideration for next years series of books, I've been thinking a little gain about what makes a book stand out in the queue and what gets passed on to the second read pile. I've already accepted a handful of things for August into September, and pickings are beautifully lush. I typically have three…
One of the things I am most loving mucking around with in my play scripts is time--the movement backward and forward. GRAVEYARDS OF CHICAGO takes place in two timelines, one of which changes mid-scene through cues like music, lights, and actor posture. THE YELLOW WALLPAPER drifts back and forth between present events in Gilman's original story and fictional scenes that go back slightly in time.…
Not only do you get to enjoy 5 recent dgp titles chosen randomly for you and get a sampling of the work we publish at a great discounted price, but each blind book box also comes with bookmarks, postcards, prints, stickers and more. You also get a fun DGP tote when you sign up! Since 2004, the annual dgp series, has been devoted to publishing innovative writing by women authors in delectable…
It has been a strange and smoke-filled week, including one night that found the sky and the downtown landscape quite apocalyptic, especially as we made our way Thursday to a back alley freight elevator accessed production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in a West Loop art space, which was a whole lot of fun (and if I had more money, would go see again since they rotate the cast through the three main…
Almost two years ago exactly I was listening to T. Swift's Tortured Poets Department on repeat and it occurred to me, one line from "So High School" would be a great title for what was then just an amorphous and incomplete manuscript which included a couple of series that centered around the idea of women as property, a chattel, but also as monsters in their own way. The pretty dead things series…
The first copies have arrived of my strangle little boxy book about murderous women, vampires, bird-girls, and wayward governesses. You can pick up a signed copy here: https://dulcetshop.myshopify.com/products/marry-kiss-kill-kristy-bowen (or, you could subscribe to my Patreon $13 tier and I will automatically send a copy with other goodies.)
Am not feeling particularly patriotic this go round of July 4th, but we did wind up downtown along the riverwalk during fireworks for Js usual karaoke gig. Though no one saw much, due to the thick bank of fog that moved in after the temps changed. Just Chicago being its usual Chicago. We emerged from our movie outing (the rather meh SUPERGIRL and the awesomely brilliant THE INVITE ) and planned to…
Last week, I was able to put the finishing touches on the final e-version of this new play, which you can read over at the New Play Exchange if you're a member over there. Or, you can also get access by subscribing to the digital tier of my Patreon . Print versions are in the work and coming in the next few weeks. Filled with blood, prophecy, and violence, this surreal retelling of Macbeth's weird…
It's been a whirl of a couple weeks since I last checked in--largely due to our one year anniversary celebrating and festivities, which started last weekend back where it all began (the wedding, that is) out in Woodstock where we were able to catch one of the Woodstock Opera House's productions-- Rock of Ages , filled with all the best glam and hair metal rock of the early to mid 80s. While we…
People often talk about "emerging" and "midcareer" poets, though one might ask what determines these categorizations. If you've never written or published poems before, you can easily be "emerging" into late life. Similarly, of you start early, you can be mid-career much earlier on. That moment in which you pass from one to another is mostly undefined. Is it your few slew of publications? A…
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The past couple of weeks, the internet has been aflutter with praise of Backrooms , which we caught in a late night screening the night it came out. It's one I, and apparently the whole of the internet horror community had been anxiously awaiting (I first heard it was happening back when I was writing about horror for GameRan t, where everyone in the workplace chat was super excited.) I also have…
It's been a rainy and stormy week, which last night, culminated in a brief power outage in the storefront theater where we were seeing a production of THE LAST 5 YEARS. It was touch and go for a minute, but they did manage to get up and running again despite having to reset everything. The other night, after an earlier storm, we wound up driving around a lot of streets blocked by fallen trees and…
Am working today on some final edits for some of the play projects underway and have been thinking about the ways that my plays are differing from other writing exploits. Poetry is something that feels like an interior language in many ways, having been at it since I was fifteen scribbling poems about cats and boys in a blue lock diary. It seems to be where my mind wanders whenever I am conceiving…
As I was editing the final version of the upcoming collection of poems and thinking about what holds the book together as a whole, it brought to mind how often the women are becoming something else, either physically or mentally. Sometimes its magical, but sometimes its monstrous. Sometimes it's a little of both. The book lives in somewhat twisted versions of matrimony and domesticity, but also in…
TITLE RELEASES JULY 15th dancing girl press & studio, 2026 140 pages Filled with blood-thick poems about early American vampires, Bluebeard's wife, murderess gothic heroines, winged swamp sirens, and more, this collection spans centuries of domestic and matrimonial horrors both real and imagined. Get your very own HERE ...
As I've been writing plays the past few months, most of which incorporate horror elements if not outright horror itself, I find it very interesting to contemplate how the stage differs vastly from other art forms in terms of concealment and reveal, and how much that plays a role in making the horror work and be.. well. horrific...in the ways we want. With writing, the writers conceals and reveals…
In the spring semester of 1993, I was listless. I had just landed back in the midwest after spending my first semester in coastal North Carolina, on an ill-begotten whim to study marine biology. Maybe it wasn't a whim and a viable plan, but there were many obstacles. One, that it was hard to find a place to study marine science in landlocked Illinois. Another was that my terribleness in math would…