
CNAME misdirect caused Mule Failure
So, here’s the deal, ya’ll. The CNAME is part of the DNS and the DNS tells the server to open your website. I think? Somehow, in their infinite capacity to screw up websites, GoDaddy changed the CNAME for www.deadmule.com and...

August 2023 Issue
Short and sweet, it’s too gosh darn hot to think. I know you know. Take a few minutes out of your day and peruse a few bits of short fiction. And, thanks to prodding from a friend (you know who...

Jerry Hogan :: “Bright Light,” “Reconcile,” and “Setting the Bar” ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Too often, our Native American past has been ignored or left out of Southern history. Here in Fayetteville, Arkansas we have a long connection to the Cherokee Nation. From 1839, when the John Benge detachment on the...

May 3rd Issue? It’s gonna be swell.
Lots of excellent writing coming your way in just a few scant days. It’s pretty damn skippy, I’m telling you. Bonus, it’s May Day and some of the month’s posts are already published!

April is complete.
Just read this in Gardens and Guns, a magazine out of Charleston, SC that is surprisingly good (despite the name). “The beautiful thing about Southerners is how happy they are to tell you all the evil things that other people...

Clayton Walker :: euthanasia ::
Southern Legitimacy Statement: Refusing the confederate conscript, the men of Winston County, Alabama were given a choice to join the confederate army or be killed. Several men, including my great great grandfather, refused to join, were jailed, and minutes before...

Ocracoke Island, NC
Yes, the April issue is lagging behind, no fooling. I’m on Ocracoke Island, NC. Where the wi-fi is slow and the living is good. If you’re scheduled to be published this month, you’ll be online by Thursday the 13th. I...

State of the Mule Address
Southern Legitimacy Statement: I’m so southern, I created the southern legitimacy statement in 1996 when we first started publishing this literary journal. The requirement to send a “statement” seemed fun at the time and necessary later. As the submissions grew,...

Ruth Chapman Heinold :: Hearts Can Break
My mom died in 2010. She was my life. I find her writing when I search through boxes looking for winter scarves or thumb through an old cookbook of hers. Bits and pieces on scrap pieces of paper. Odds nd...


Dead Mule Submissions and more…
Hey ya’ll. I sent an email to those of you out there with submissions sitting in the Submittable hopper for the last eight months or more. Basically, if you submitted this year and I didn’t respond, please message me through...

What’s Your Label? Valerie MacEwan
I choose my label. “Writer” It’s rectangular. And temporary. I remove the large blue HELLO, I AM ____________ paper tag from my sweater and stick it to the mirror. Twenty years ago, my father put another label above my left breast. This...

Alexandra Melnick: Blade Running in the South
(Reprint from 2017 October Issue of the Dead Mule, seems very relevant today) In 1990, at a public lecture series on art in Los Angeles, three out of five leading urban planners agreed that they hoped someday L.A. would look...