"Mario's Three Lives," by Matt Bell

Recently I came across the short story "Mario's Three Lives," by Matt Bell, published in Barrelhouse, and while I'm pretty sure it was published at least a year ago I'd put it on my Top 10 list of shorts I read this year.

It's a poignant meditation on God as seen from Nintendo's Mario, the kind so often done in fine form by artists (the above piece is by Ted McClung). It's nice to see a writer up to the task.

On a maybe unrelated note, happy New Year to all. Let's hope in the coming year we can avoid, as Matt Bell might phrase it, "the Place Where One Waits Between Continues" as much as possible.