IN BRIEF: Dug Nap is a wacked wordsmith from way back. The lyricist for Pinhead was born with an ear for language. Tragi-comic lines like “Caution: I have needs,” “Serial Nurturer” and “Yup” have made their way into his paintings and onto his greeting cards, which are no longer hand-colored, but printed and distributed professionally. Now the messages are available as small posters at Silver Maple and Bazou. Thirty-two designs include “Rent does not include apartment,” “Maybe I don’t give a rat’s ass” and “I know you won’t go out with me, but could I be your chair?” Who says Santa can’t have a sick sense of humor? ... When he is not writing editorials for The Burlington Free Press, Stephen Kiernan is home making stuff up. Although he doesn’t have a publisher yet for Second Sight, his novel set at a school for seeing-eye dogs was a finalist last fall for the James Jones Award. That helped him land a respectable agent, who has two publishers interested in the book. We’ll see... Thirty-five thousand dollars goes a long way in Hardwick. Especially when you’ve waited nearly two decades to get down to the business of writing poetry — full-time. Raising a daughter alone, Martha Zweig worked 10 years in a Morrisville factory and 10 more for the Agency on Aging before she published her first book of poems last year. The organic verse in Vinegar Bone caught the attention of the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. Ten writers — including three poets — lucked out this year. Past winners include Michael Cunningham, Alice McDermott, Tony Kushner, Mary Karr, August Wilson and Howard Norman ... You’ve got to be wired, and have a hell of a healthy printer, to read Cold as Ice — the first novel by part-time Roxbury resident Bill Armstrong. When traditional publishers turned him down, Armstrong sold his Sugarbush set murder mystery to Electron Press, where you can find virtual works of literature such 117 Days: The Katie Beers Story and Biloxi P.I. online. You can read excerpts without paying — my favorite line is “She suggested hot chocolate at the Den and I didn’t refuse.” The downloaded manuscript is not much pricier, at $4.50 ... After five years in the features department at the Burlington Free Press, Casey Seiler is bowing out as resident arts writer and editor of the Thursday Weekend section. He’s going south to join the Albany Times Union to cover culture in pretty much the same capacity — “low art” stuff as opposed to opera, classical music and fine arts. “It’s a town with really good theater, a ton of movie theaters — although, I’m sorry to say, most of them are Hoyts,” says Seiler, sniping to the end ... On the same subject, I owe an apology to the folks at WCDC for suggesting excessive static on their signal out of Westport, New York. My fingers failed to lock in the frequency the night I tried, but the music came through loud and clear the next day, albeit on a very narrow band. Unfortunately, that was post-publication.