DOGZPLOT NEWS...

FUCKSCAPES. SEAN KILPATRICK

2012-01-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

fuckscapes by Sean Kilpatrick
100 pgs. /// Dec. 2011 /// $12 ///

“The violent, sexual zone of television and entertainment is made to saturate that safe-haven, the American Family. The result is a zone of violent ambience, a ‘fuckscape’: where every object or word can be made to do horrific acts. As when torturers use banal objects on its victims, it is the most banal objects that become the most horrific (and hilarious) in Sean Kilpatrick’s brilliant first book.” – Johannes Goransson, author of A New Quarantine Will Take My Place

“Pregnancy dream of poetry has this Sean Kilpatrick book by the fist. You learn to signal to others from the woken state, here, line-by-line. Do you have any extra money? Buy this book! If you have to skip lunch, buy THIS BOOK! “I held my breath so hard I ended up in the country.” Some poetry you read is forgotten, and never remembered. Some poetry, this poetry, Sean Kilpatrick’s poetry, is a manual for exciting the engine to throw you out of the vanquished pleasures. Here is your I.V. drip of sphinx’s blood.” – CAConrad, author of The Book of Frank

excerpt:

dolemite

motherfucker my stains dance
in trumpet cast clouds
by faint progression like torn
skin off money
ho

physicians break my caravan
to crave a scalp this
low

bitch I doggy paddle the stars
in jars of petty absence
where love most is I slapped
a straight jacket on and got fancy
in the cunt of evenings gone

overture of pockets now
swiping my balls on god

NFL 2012 PLAYOFF PICKS - WILDCARD WEEKEND

2012-01-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

Cincinnati Bengals vs. Houston Texans

Cincinnati isn't as strong as they should / could be, but there are just too many injuries on the Texans side. If it was Houston mid-season I would say this is a no-brainer, not only would Houston win this one, but they may have been able to get all the way to the AFC Championship with a first round bye. But all that's gone. Sorry Houston. Next year is yours to lose though.

Winner: Cincinnati Bengals

Detroit Lions vs. New Orleans Saints

Saints are at home and the Lions are two years away from prime time. New Orleans takes this one, but not as easily as people are thinking.

Winner: New Orleans Saints

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Denver Broncos

Something is wrong here that a very mediocre Broncos squad gets home field over a much much better Pittsburgh team, but that's the way it goes. Even with home field, and the miracle of God and Heaven shining down on Denver and Tebow. Their time is up.

Winner: Pittsburgh Steelers

Atlanta Falcons vs. New York Giants

This may be the hardest game to pick. I like Atlanta's run game here, but New York has a way of winning in the playoffs when you don't think they can. And they are at home.

Winner: New York Giants

NEW YEAR'S EVE IN NYC 2011-2012

2012-01-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve 2011-2012, also known as the eve of the end of the world. What better place to spend it then NYC?

Feet were killing when we got there. Tired as fuck. Back hurt from carrying a heavy ass back pack all day. Legs hurting more than they should because I'm a lazy bastard. But all that aside. The night was pretty bad ass. Thousands and thousands of people. Maybe millions. Met lots of silly ass people. Surprising, lots of French folks. One of which had no trouble digging in her nose and rolling the boogers around on her fingers like no one noticed or gave a fuck, but I guess if she didn't why should we? French, Ukrainian, Korean, Indian, Japanese, Australian, everyone from everywhere but Manhattan.

People were pretty packed in by 8pm, too tight. Saw Drake for like 10 minutes. The policed barricaded us in then proceeded to push us all around like assholes, but whatever, it lead to maybe my favorite moment ever. The guy, pictured above, standing beside me, taps me on the shoulder, like "ay man, you mind if I take a piss right here?" "I don't know man, I don't want that shit splashing all over me." "No, I got this bottle and my penis hole is pretty small." "Alright, man, go ahead." So, my man, proceeds to piss in the bottle. Some people watching and giggling, some people turn away appalled. This one dude kept pretending to look away but turned his head every two seconds to see his dick. When he finished I asked him if I could get a pic with him holding the bottle. And he obliged. He seems too proud in the pic maybe, like a kid catching a first fish. Anyway, I was happy about it. He put the bottle in his pocket and his wife kept hitting him and stopped talking to him for maybe a half an hour. Awesome.

Then shit got weird. The police decided to make everyone squeeze in even closer, so they pushed everyone back. Crowd wasn't feeling it. Lots of angry exchanges between civilians and cops. Then everyone started acting silly. People lighting weed up everywhere, everyone trying to smash through the barricades until they were snatched up. At least ten fights broke out just in our area. More cops came, then more cops, police dogs, screaming, chaos. Some lady passed out drunk and the ambulance came. Everyone clapped when she got back up. People breathing and sweating into other people.

Then, of course, someone tried squeezing in way too close and fell off the sidewalk into the crowd. People were falling over. Everyone starts pushing. Police yelling. People screaming back, pushing harder. People falling everywhere and cracking their heads. Arrests were made. Random threats made every few minutes. Everyone got squeezed in so tight, no one could move. Women were crying, pets were getting trampled, kids getting separated from their parents, people getting drug out of the crowd before/while fainting. No one could move. At some point I heard a girl yell, "haha, you're that guy who pissed in the bottle, awesome." Everyone's body parts were on someone else's. Every couple minutes women yelling for people to stop touching all up in their ass. One of them I felt particularly bad for was a 15 or 16 year old girl who was very nice and friendly but somehow got separated from her father and was smashed between six men and she was one of the females who kept yelling about her ass over and over. Trash piling up, broken bottles, more weed. More police. People yelling about their pockets getting picked. People squeezed even tighter. At some point my arm got pinned behind my back with no way to move it. People kept yelling that they see Lady Gaga. Silly shit.

Then, like magic, people started counting down and somehow, loosening up. People jumping up and down, screaming, noisemakers, counting down, ball dropping, fireworks, and the world made total fucking sense and it was 2012 and I loved life and everyone seemed glad for a solid two minutes.

Then it was time to clear out and it was as expected. People and police and trash and piss and vomit everywhere. People finding food and cabs and trouble and shit was real. All of this happening on every block and side street all over the city.

Everyone saw all this on TV, right? What? Just Carson Daly and Lady Gaga? No way?

So, yeah, that was that. Glad I went, met some cool ass folks, but I'd never do that shit again... or would I?

'11 in Tens

2011-12-30T18:37:00.000-08:00

“Is graduation ten letters because I want to make out?”

I live in a complex amidst one HEIRESS license plate.

Some veggie burgers are noticeably greener than others’ fart hallelujahs.

The ranch is not a condiment but Dent May’s flavor.

Spare washers, dryers do not count as cuddles or spouses.

I can climb inside a dumpster swearing WE A FARM.

Sweet potatoes act as babies when they are your stomach.

She says Marlboro after I sound it out for her.

The square is a skank away from a juice bar.

When you think of somewhere else, know you will soon.

"BEN TANZER" THEME ISSUE

2011-12-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

DOGZPLOT FLASH FICTION "Ben Tanzer" theme issue. Same guidelines as always, which pretty much means no guidelines. Keep them under 200 words and every story must contain "Ben Tanzer" somehow, someway. Have fun and thank you very much for all the support.

Send to:

dogzplot.press@yahoo.com

FAST MACHINE. ELIZABETH ELLEN. PERIOD SEX

2011-12-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

LONG DRIVE / SHORT FLIGHT presents...

http://www.hobartpulp.com/minibooks/fastmachine.html

Dan Wickett once described a Mary Miller story as "a slightly less gritty Elizabeth Ellen story." We're not sure what that means, but it sounds kind of cool. We like the word gritty. And we're obviously huge fans of Mary Miller and her stories. And grit. The stories in Fast Machine come in three sizes: flash, regular, and too-long-for-journal-publication. Some were previously published. Some are brand-spanking new. One is called "Period Sex," for Barry Graham/Kendra Grant Malone. There are slightly more than four hundred pages. There are no acknowledgments (i.e. no three-page thank you to everyone she met at every writers' colony). Zero epigraphs. There are repeated themes: driving, smoking, teenagers, drinking, escape, the Midwest, masturbation, self-loathing and blood. We hope some of you will like it. It's okay to hate it though, too.

ELIZABETH ELLEN's bio video:

http://vimeo.com/28876149

FAST FOOD 2011. NEW PRODUCT REVIEW

2011-12-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of new menu items at various fast food restaurants, from 2011, that I've tried. Some were good. Some sucked ass.

TACO BELL

Dorito Tacos

So, you don't live in Ohio or southeast Michigan so you have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about. You're bad. Because, though I'm not usually a fan of Taco Bell, this shit is delicious. Regular tacos with Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch Dorito shells. Fuck what ya heard.

XXL Chalupa

There's actually more meat stuffed in there (or what passes for meat at Taco Bell) instead of just more lettuce and refried beans. I liked them.

Bacon Ranch Chicken Flatbread Sandwich

It is what the name says and for just a dollar it beats the shit out of the normal fast food dollar menus when you get tired of them. Give it a go. It's pretty decent shit.

McDONALD's

French Vanilla Frappe

Huge fan of the frappe. French vanilla flavored, blended cappuccinos. These things are delicious. Fuck Starbucks. Fuck your favorite indie java joint. Fuck Pluto not being a planet. Fuck Jay-Z. Fuck french fries and french apple pies. But the french vanilla frappes are amazing. My favorite is caramel, then mocha, then french vanilla. Try them all. Love them. Embrace them.

Oatmeal

Didn't have a chance to try this but my daughter did and she says it's good shiz and she's a pretty picky eater. So, I'd take her word.

Caramel Apple Yogurt Parfait

CARAMEL. APPLE. YOGURT. PARFAIT. What? You didn't hear me the first time. Yum.

WENDY's

Thicker Juicer Burgers

Exact same weight as the less thick, less juicer burgers, weighing in at 1/4 lb. But the difference is, the grill guy doesn't smash and press the shit out of em. The patties are smaller, but thicker. No real difference in taste, so you either like Wendy's burgers or you don't. I do. I appreciate cold condiments. I don't know why.

Sea Salt Fries

Wendy, I know you're daddy's gone and everything, but what the fuck were you thinking? I still love you, though. Call me.

BURGER KING

Chef's Choice Burger

This thing is pretty good. Little over a 1/3 lb. Bacon, cheese, red onions, romaine, some weird ass wanna be Big Mac sauce, on a tasty artisan style bun. I liked it a lot. It's a little dry so I substitute the weird sauce for traditional Whopper style mayo and ketchup (catsup???). Charging five dollars just for the sandwich is pretty fucking ridiculous though. Get your shit together BK.

New Thicker Fries

Same as the old shitty fries, only bigger, so more shit.

ARBY's

Philly Sandwich

"Best Philly sandwich outside of Philly" get the fuck out of here Arby's. This statement is only true if you limit yourself to what's on your menu and even then it's questionable. Don't get me wrong, it's decent. But it's no Philly. They would have had done better to market it as a regular roast beef sandwich with the added amenities, instead of weighing it down with hype it can never live up to. I ate a better Philly at a fucking gas station.

STEVE ROGGENBUCK. GOOD GRACIOUS. ASS BODACIOUS.

2011-12-16T15:28:00.000-08:00

25 MOST BEAUTIFUL COLLEGE LIBRARIES IN THE WORLD. U OF MICH REPRESENTIN'

2011-12-14T21:06:00.000-08:00

UNIVERSITY of MICHIGAN law library

COMPLETE LIST HERE:

http://flavorwire.com/240819/the-25-most-beautiful-college-libraries-in-the-world

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE. 5.3

2011-12-10T17:34:00.001-08:00

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE

5.3

http://www.prickofthespindle.com/

100 SEXIEST WOMEN OF ALL TIME. MEN'S HEALTH MAGAZINE

2011-12-10T13:40:00.000-08:00

17. ANNA NICOLE SMITH

12. SCARLETT JOHANSSON

COMPLETE LIST HERE:

http://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/hottest-women-all-time

HINT FICTION FILM CONTEST. 25 WORDS. 1 MINUTE

2011-12-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

HINT FICTION FILM CONTEST

25 WORDS

1 MINUTES

CELEBRITY JUDGES

KEVIN SMITH

TAO RUSPOLI

PRODUCER

ROBERT SWARTWOOD

INFO HERE:

http://www.hintfictionfilm.com/Hint_Fiction_Film/The_Contest.html

10 FAVORITE BOOKS I READ IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR. 2011

2011-11-29T10:40:00.001-08:00

10 FAVORITE FROM FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR

(without commentary or justification and maybe not in order)

1. The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas - Davy Rothbart (reread)

2. The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt

3. The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom & Party Girl - Marc Schuster

4. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

5. The Lover's Dictionary: A Novel - David Levithan

6. Waiting - Ha Jin

7. The White Boy Shuffle - Paul Beatty (reread)

8. Rule of the Bone - Russell Banks (reread)

9. You Can Make Him Like You - Ben Tanzer

10. I AM THINKING I WILL RUIN IT AHEAD OF TIME AND TELL YOU WHAT I AM THINKING WHICH IS PARK IT YOURSELF. METALLICA BREATH. I AM THINKING I STOOD WITH MY PEN BUT YOU WERE NOWHERE - Nicolle Elizabeth

Honorable Mentions

Yellow Medicine - Anthony Neil Smith

The Dead Man - Georges Bataille

BOOKS I COULDN'T WAIT TO READ BUT ENDED UP BEING A BIG TIME LET DOWN

Lost Memory of Skin - Russell Banks

American Pastoral - Phillip Roth

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

DOGZPLOT FLASH FICTION ANTHOLOGY 2012

2011-11-23T13:25:00.001-08:00

artwork courtesy of Amy Crockett

photograph courtesy of Chari Crockett

DOGZPLOT FLASH FICTION ANTHOLOGY 2012

Coming soon...

ML PRESS. STAMP STORIES ANTHOLOGY

2011-11-20T16:47:00.001-08:00

[ C. ] An MLP Stamp Stories Anthology is shipping now & to celebrate, we've done two things: First, we hooked up with the wonderful & freakishly good Scott Garson to create a special edition of Wigleaf, including thirteen original Stamp Stories by thirteen of our [ C. ] authors, all online & free here. Second, we are putting [ C. ] on sale for the next few days, giving you one-hundred Stamp Stories by one-hundred of the greatest contemporary writers, all for $10 with free shipping here. Good right? We thought you'd like it. So, read the special Wigleaf, order a sale copy before our deal expires, & then wait hummingly at your mailbox for the likes of some beautiful new Mud Luscious.

Stamp Stories are texts of 50 words or less, printed on 1×1 cardstock, & shipped free from participating presses. We wanted to tie together the indie press community in a vibrant yet viable way, & so this venture was born. Through 2010, we solicited stamp-sized texts from 100 authors & distributed the physical Stamp Stories through more than 40 participating presses. [ C. ] collects all of these texts into one perfect-bound edition.

Participating Authors James Tadd Adcox, Jesse Ball, Ken Baumann, Lauren Becker, Matt Bell, Kate Bernheimer, Michael Bible, Jack Boettcher, Harold Bowes, Jesse Bradley, Donald Breckenridge, Melissa Broder, Blake Butler, James Chapman, Jimmy Chen, Joshua Cohen, Peter Conners, Shome Dasgupta, Andy Devine, Giancarlo DiTrapano, Claire Donato, Elizabeth Ellen, Raymond Federman, Kathy Fish, Scott Garson, Molly Gaudry, Roxane Gay, Steven Gillis, Rachel B. Glaser, Amanda Goldblatt, Barry Graham, Amelia Gray, Sara Greenslit, Tina May Hall, Christopher Higgs, Lily Hoang, Tim Horvath, Joanna Howard, Laird Hunt, Jamie Iredell, Harold Jaffe, A D Jameson, Jac Jemc, Stephanie Johnson, Shane Jones, Drew Kalbach, Roy Kesey, Sean Kilpatrick, Michael Kimball, M. Kitchell, Robert Kloss, Darby Larson, Charles Lennox, Eugene Lim, Matthew Lippman, Norman Lock, Robert Lopez, Sean Lovelace, Josh Maday, Dave Madden, JohnMadera, Kendra Grant Malone, Tony Mancus, Peter Markus, Chelsea Martin, Zachary Mason, Hosho McCreesh, Alissa Nutting, Riley Michael Parker, Aimee Parkison, David Peak, Ted Pelton, Adam Peterson, Ryan Ridge, Joseph Riippi, Adam Robinson, Ethel Rohan, Joanna Ruocco, Kevin Sampsell, Selah Saterstrom, Davis Schneiderman, Zachary Schomburg, Todd Seabrook, Ben Segal, Gregory Sherl, Lydia Ship, Matthew Simmons, Justin Sirois, Amber Sparks, Ken Sparling, Ben Spivey, Michael Stewart, Terese Svoboda, Sean Ulman, Deb Olin Unferth, Timmy Waldron, William Walsh, Rupert Wondolowski, James Yeh, & Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé.

Participating Presses Artifice Magazine, Artistically Declined Press, Atticus Books,Barge, Blood Pudding Press, Blue Square Books, Calamari Press, Cow Heavy, The Cupboard, Dark Sky Books, Dzanc Books, Ellipsis Press, Fairy Tale Review,Featherproof Books, Gigantic, Greying Ghost, Hobart, The Iron Rail, Ink Monkey Mag,Keyhole Books, Kitty Snacks, Lazy Fascist Press, Magic Helicopter Press,Monkeybicycle, Narrow House, Opium, Outside Writer’s Collective, Pank, Paper Hero Press, Pear Noir!, Pilot Books, Publishing Genius Press, Quick Fiction, Ravenna Books,Scrambler Books, Starcherone Books, Typecast Publishing, Tyrant Books, Word Riot Press, & Yes Yes Books

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: MARC SCHUSTER

2011-11-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

Marc Schuster is a teacher and author whose debut novel The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl offers what author Steve Almond has referred to as “a terrific and unconventional look at motherhood.” In a recent interview with the Miami Herald, Almond went on to praise the novel by saying, “It’s about a divorced mom of two who sort of goes nuts and becomes a giant cokehead. It’s very funny and very sad, two qualities that travel well together. Schuster has a great ear for dialogue, and he’s both tender and ruthless with his heroine. I love books like this, ones that take big emotional risks.”

When he’s not writing, Schuster is the editor of Small Press Reviews, and he teaches English at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. His second novel, The Grievers, is due from The Permanent Press in May of 2012.

PS: Have you ever tried cocaine?

MS: No, I've never tried cocaine, but I did a lot of research on the subject to make Audrey's descent into addiction feel realistic to readers. The idea for the novel itself started with some reading I was doing for another project altogether. I was writing a paper on drug imagery in the poetry of TS Eliot, and the section of library where all of my sources were located included a lot of contemporary books on the issues of drugs and addiction. I started paging through one of them, and though it was fairly dry, a case study caught my eye. This was back in 1997, so I'm a little fuzzy on the exact details, but what I remember is a description of a divorced mother of two who had tried cocaine for the first time when her boyfriend offered it to her. She reported that she liked the drug because it made her come out of her shell. When asked, the respondent said she would probably try it again. That case study stayed with me for a long time, and, in my mind, anyway, the woman in the study eventually evolved into Audrey.

PS: Ah, Audrey. From the very first opening line I knew I liked her. Then just a few pages in, I became infatuated with her. She's so perfect in her imperfections, so deliciously feminine. Being a man, how were you so able to capture the mindset of a woman? Surely this is beyond the scope of research?

MS: Oddly enough, I did do a little bit of research—not into the character of Audrey so much as the kinds of messages our culture is always sending out to women in general and mothers in particular. This research consisted largely of paging through parenting and women’s magazines and making notes about the kinds of articles and advertisements I saw. I give a slight nod to my sources when Audrey and Melinda head off to procure some cocaine from a new, sketchy source and Audrey pages through a magazine called Pretty Easy to take her mind off the neighborhood they’re driving through. I don’t think there’s actually a magazine called Pretty Easy, but the ad copy that Audrey reads, and which makes her feel guilty for not being a perfect mom, comes directly from real-life advertisements. One of my favorites is “Having sexy underarms is no sweat.” I wish I could have made that up, but it was pure Madison Avenue. The same goes for “Me time should come drizzled in chocolate.” The only difference for Audrey is that her vice of choice when she gets some “me time” isn’t chocolate.

As for capturing the mindset of a woman, I never sat down and thought to myself, “I’m writing from the perspective of a female character.” Instead, I tried to think about all of the things that make Audrey tick, all of the things she wants, all of the insecurities that might motivate her. Personally, I have plenty of insecurities to draw on, so it was easy to get into Audrey’s head. The biggest one, at least as far as her character is concerned, is loneliness. I’m not quite the loner I was in my youth, but there was a time when I felt incredibly isolated, and that’s what Audrey’s going through in the wake of her divorce. She’d met all of her old friends through her ex-husband, Roger, and the only adults she knows are her coworkers. When Owen Little shows up and pays a bit of attention to her, it’s her loneliness—her fear of never really connecting with another adult again—that makes her take risks that she might not normally take.

PS: God, you make me want to menstruate, but towards the end of the novel, you outright broke my heart. Owen gets rough with Audrey and demands that she admit being attacked by "goat-boy" turned her on. And that she made her kids watch them have sex and threatened to have their father killed if they ever told. At any point did you worry you went too far there?

MS: A lot of people are disturbed by that passage, and rightly so, I would say. But I never thought I went too far. I generally don't go into writing thinking, "Is this going to upset people?" Life upsets people, and life is what I'd like to think I'm writing about, so I assume that some of what I write is going to be disturbing. In this sense, I'm glad I broke your heart with that passage. It lets me know you're not a sociopath! As far as writing goes, though, I also don't start out trying offend or disturb people just for the sake of doing so. I'm not into gratuitous sex or violence. Or gratuitous anything, for that matter. I usually try to make sure everything I put into a story or novel is there for a reason.

PS: Yes, later I realized it's a key scene to the entire story. Any scenes that didn't make the final version you want to tell us about?

MS: There were plenty of dead-ends when I wrote the first draft of the novel, and even characters that ended up getting cut completely. Early on, I had Audrey working at a commercial real-estate company. There was a sub-plot where she was selling drugs out of unused office spaces. At that point, I actually had two different characters that I eventually merged into Melinda. One was a hairdresser named Deirdre, and the other was a co-worker named Melinda who encouraged Audrey to have a little fun once in a while. It wasn't until draft three or four that I remembered I knew nothing about commercial real estate and that my actual background was in editing the kind of rag that Audrey works for in the final version of the novel. At the very least, this gave me the opportunity to create a believable livelihood for Audrey--or one that I understood, anyway.

A scene that got dropped later in the revision process involved Audrey's first experience with cocaine. The research I had done suggested that many first-time cocaine users don't get much of a buzz. As a result, most of the early drafts of the novel have Audrey trying cocaine once and not feeling much of anything. The experience, however, is enough to make her curious to try it again, and it isn't until the second time that she falls in love with the feeling the drug gives her. One of the ideas that I was trying to convey was that she was effectively addicted before the drug even got her high--that just the idea of cocaine, the allure of the drug, the fact that using it makes her someone other than the woman her ex-husband rejected, is what gets her hooked. As much as I liked this idea, it slowed the story down a bit, and my editor didn't feel that it matched up with popular mythology regarding the drug. Ironically, my attempt at realism made the editor think my portrayal of Audrey's first experience with cocaine was unrealistic.

PS: Haha, I guess sometimes realism isn't so realistic. Has your editor ever done coke?

MS: That thought did occur to me, but I never had the courage to ask. And, of course, I can't tell you which editor it was.

PS: Fair enough. I understand there's a second version of your novel. Can you talk about why that is and the differences between the two?

MS: The novel was originally published by PS Books, which is the books division of Philadelphia Stories magazine. The run was about 500 books, and there was never a plan to do a second run. At about the time their stock was running low, Martin Shepard of The Permanent Press started reading some of the reviews I'd written at Small Press Reviews and called to ask if I ever did any writing. Though I was working on another project at the time, it wasn't even close to being finished, so I asked if I could send him a copy of Wonder Mom. He read it and liked it, and said he'd publish it if I could cut it down a bit. Since I've always respected The Permanent Press and loved its titles, I jumped at the chance. In the cutting process, though, I started realizing that the structure of the book as a whole would have to change. As a result, the two editions are very different from each other.

What I call the pink edition is the paperback version that PS Books published in 2009. It's a bit longer than the later edition, but the bigger difference is that it jumps back and forth in time. The blue edition, by way of contrast, is the hardback version from The Permanent Press. I cut a lot of backstory from that version--mainly information having to do with Audrey's divorce, because I didn't think I was doing anything especially new with that material. Fifty years ago, describing an ugly divorce might have been groundbreaking, but today, it's just part of the furniture, so I was okay with cutting it. But the novel started feeling a little lopsided when I started cutting, so I reshuffled the chapters and put them in chronological order. To me, the whole experience underscores the performativity of writing. We tend to think of a text as a single, unbending, unchanging thing in our culture, but my experience moving from one publisher to the next allowed me to play with the book and, in turn, allowed the book to evolve. In this sense, I see it as akin to a jazz performance. The basic themes are all present in both editions, but I do something different with them in each. I'm really happy with both editions.

PS: As you should be. Next I'd like to discuss the good guy of the story: Captain Panther, who perhaps seems pathetic in his ambition to be America's #1 anti-drug superhero, but really proves himself as a true friend and support to Audrey by the end. He's so unique yet real. I think the last time I saw a character like that was in a Tom Robbins novel. Where'd he come from?

MS: Captain Panther is a case of truth being stranger than fiction. I used to live near a nursery school, and one day when I was struggling with writer's block, I heard a drum machine and someone yelling into a microphone: "Come on out, Tigerman!" Then I heard a few dozen preschoolers chanting, "Come on out, Tigerman!" I looked out my back window and saw a man dressed like a tiger rapping about saying no to drugs and bullying. Initially, I was really annoyed. I was trying to write a novel, after all, and this guy was a bit of a distraction. But then it hit me that this might be the key to breaking my writer's block. A new character. A new direction for the story. So I started imaging what a guy like this would be like and why he'd do what he does--the origin story, as it were. It really helped me find a balance in terms of the characters in the novel. So many of them are just slimy and selfish. It was nice to be able add a decent, if somewhat off-kilter, human being to the mix. The only problem is that a few readers have complained that Captain Panther is just too ridiculous of a character, completely unrealistic. It's a problem I run into a lot, I suppose--reporting what I see and being told that it's not realistic.

PS: Do you think those readers have ever done coke?

MS: Definitely.

PS: Ah, that explains a lot. Everyone knows you can't trust cokeheads. I used it for a while in college and found it totally un-heady; it affected only the lowest, most base parts of me: my id and ego. I did dumb, cliché things like snort lines off women's tits while thinking I was so cool. You've spent a lot of time with cocaine, even if indirectly, what are your thoughts about the drug now? How did your views change from the time you started until the time you finished?

MS: When I started working on the book, I was thinking of cocaine as a metaphor for consumerism writ large. We live in a culture where we're always encouraged to spend loads of money on useless shit we don't need. And we're supposed to do it quickly--probably because if we think too much about our purchases, we might be less likely to make them. We're really into immediate gratification, and that, from all I'd read, was also what cocaine was about. Feeding the id and ego, as your experience suggests.

As I continued to work on the book, though, I started thinking about addiction more broadly. Everybody, I think, has a void that needs to be filled in one way or another. We all feel pain, existential angst. Everybody hurts, to quote Michael Stipe. Some people discover that getting high is a way to quiet that angst, to quell those fears. Other people turn to things like shopping or gambling. Still others eat or love or pray. Or they starve themselves. Or cut themselves. Personally, I can't go five minutes without checking my email. It's not that I'm expecting anything. I just keep checking it on the off-chance that someone wrote to say something nice to me. It's like playing a really lame slot machine. It's also why I had to get off Facebook. I was on there all the time, seeing what people had to say.

I mention all of this because when I was meeting with book clubs and doing readings, some people would comment and say that Audrey was weak--weak for trying cocaine in the first place, and weak for succumbing to addiction. My response was always to say that everyone has a weakness, but this doesn't make everyone weak. It's how we respond to our weaknesses, how we deal with our angst and the mistakes we make that matters. For me, that's the whole point of the novel.

PS: Amen. I feel the same way about America which is why I hope everyone reads The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl which can be purchased HERE:

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, Marc.

MS: Thank you, Peter. The pleasure was all mine.

CHICAGO BOOK EXPO. NOV. 19 - 20

2011-11-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Uptown Goldblatt's Building (former Borders Books)

4720 N. Broadway location

Uptown Broadway Building

4701 N. Broadway

Hours:

Saturday 10am-6pm

Sunday 12pm-6pm

Over 40 participating Chicago fiction and poetry presses in a pop-up bookstore!

CLICK HERE to see which presses

Impressive list of publishers, magazines, presses, etc. And some pretty great panels, readings, and other events. If you're anywhere near Chicago, peep the CHICAGO BOOK EXPO.

FAB 5. RANDALL BROWN & LAUREN BECKER

2011-11-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

RANDALL BROWN

"It Doesn't," from Quick Fiction

http://quickfiction.org/read/315/it-doesn%E2%80%99t/

"Morton Bonsey," from 3:AM Magazine

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/morton-bonsey/

"Eight Micros," from FRiGG Magazine

http://www.friggmagazine.com/issuetwentyfour/poemsstories/fiction/brown/eightmicros.htm

"Set in Stone," from Night Train

http://www.nighttrainmagazine.com/contents/rbrown_fb.php

"Being Frank," from SmokeLong Quarterly

http://www.smokelong.com/flash/1107.asp--

LAUREN BECKER

Independent Living (Pedestal Magazine):

http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?item=9564

A Simple Explanation (Storyglossia):

http://www.storyglossia.com/33/lb_simple.html

Erase (Mud Luscious):

http://www.mudlusciouspress.com/online_issues/Mud%20Luscious%20Issue%20Six.pdf

His Days (Necessary Fiction):

http://necessaryfiction.com/writerinres/HisDaysbyLaurenBecker

A Boy (Monkeybicycle):

http://monkeybicycle.net/old-archive/Becker/boy.html

MORE AWP GOODNESS. MUD LUSCIOUS. ANNALEMMA. PANK

2011-11-01T12:05:00.001-07:00

AWP 2012 CHICAGO KICK-OFF PARTY

2011-10-17T10:57:00.001-07:00


	Kick-off AWP 2012, Chicago-style, at the Empty Bottle with readings, party, mayhem, bands, DJs, more details to follow... Hosted by: Harold Ray, a ruinous West Virginian janitor who secretly longs to become a famous country singer but has no discernible talents other than an ability to drunkenly croon. Music by: James Greer (of GBV) and peeps Mutts more TBA Presented by: Dogzplot Curbside Splendor Orange Alert TZWCYL Artistically Declined Other Voices Books (OVB) Featherproof Books Empty Bottle Readers include: xTx Sarah Rose Etter Jesus Angel Garcia Jeff Parker Michael Czyzniejewski James Greer Lindsay Hunter Jamie Iredell Michael Kimball Sam Pink Lara Konesky Mary Miller Craig Renfroe Rebecca Roberts Peter Schwartz Amber Sparks Sarah Sweeney Ben Tanzer Mike Young More info coming soon...

Kick-off AWP 2012, Chicago-style, at the Empty Bottle with readings, party, mayhem, bands, DJs, more details to follow...

Hosted by:

Harold Ray, a ruinous West Virginian janitor who secretly longs to become a famous country singer but has no discernible talents other than an ability to drunkenly croon.

Music by:

James Greer (of GBV) and peeps
Mutts
more TBA

Presented by:

Dogzplot
Curbside Splendor
Orange Alert
TZWCYL
Artistically Declined
Other Voices Books (OVB)
Featherproof Books
Empty Bottle

Readers include:

xTx
Sarah Rose Etter
Jesus Angel Garcia
Jeff Parker
Michael Czyzniejewski
James Greer
Lindsay Hunter
Jamie Iredell
Michael Kimball
Sam Pink
Lara Konesky
Mary Miller
Craig Renfroe
Rebecca Roberts
Peter Schwartz
Amber Sparks
Sarah Sweeney
Ben Tanzer
Mike Young

More info coming soon...

THE RETURN OF PETER 'P DIDDY' SCHWARTZ

2011-10-15T11:35:00.001-07:00

We would like to welcome Peter Schwartz back on to the editorial team at DOGZPLOT, where he's served proudly almost since the begin. True soldier, artist, poet, writer, comedian, photographer, editor, and friend.

And to welcome him back proper we've feature one of his kick ass flashes in the new issue of DOGZPLOT and he's also going to be guest editing the next issue. So get those flashes out and send them along.

As always thanks to everyone who continues to read, encourage, support, subscribe, and submit their brilliant flash fiction and art work to DOGZPLOT.

Love.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW. VICTOR DAVID GIRON

2011-09-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Victor David Giron is the son of immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala. He's a CPA, bar owner, and runs Curbside Splendor Publishing, a small press that showcases art and literature celebrating urbanism. In addition to publishing works by local writers, he puts on literary events and sell books by Chicago-based publishers and authors at the Logan Square Farmers Market. His work has appeared in Rougarou, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Jersey Devil Press, and Diverse Voices Quarterly, among others, and his first novel Sophomoric Philosophy came out in November 2010. He lives in Chicago.

http://chicagoartistsresource.org/literary/node/34651

Your protagonist, Alex, seems to have lived a pretty average, middle-America, Mid-Western life. As a young man he seemed preoccupied with the same things that all of us are; music, girls, beer, and being cool. He then chose a stable career path through a Big Ten university and settled into his life as an accountant where his interests haven’t changed much from that of his youth. What do you see as the primary correlation between Alex’s middle of the road life path and his desire to be an artist / philosopher?

Alex is a hyper-contemplative person, highly aware of his surroundings to a point where it drives his insecurity. And though this is only touched on briefly in the novel, his parents are originally illegal immigrants from Mexico. Alex initially grows up in a predominantly Latino area of Chicago and his parents work hard to move their family to a middle-America suburb so that he and his sister live an ordinary life. To their parents this is success. Although Alex embraces this, and indeed cherishes the things living in a middle-American suburb affords, he also discovers he has interests that his immediate friends don’t—reading books, writing, really listening to music, drawing. Or rather, they might share them, but being hyper-aware, Alex begins to see these interests in his friends are disappearing as they get older and start to be consumed by the hardships that their indulgences bring them. So he feels this pull to not let go of these interests, because it scares him, the idea of completely letting go. But he’s also pulled back because he knows his parents worked so hard to allow him to indulge in every day comforts, something they themselves never had. It’s the tipping point of this struggle that fuels him to want to be some sort of artist.

What does it mean to you to "become an artist?"

In my opinion, to be an artist is simply to be that. To create. Whatever it is you like to create. Essentially (and here is the sophomoric philosopher in me), to be human. I’m a firm believer that our best quality is our desire to express ourselves creatively and we’re at our worst when this creative energy is suffocated and the energy that is lost is released in a much more destructive fashion (i.e. intolerance, frustration, boredom). I’m sort of a late bloomer when it comes to being creative. Like the character Alex, I’ve struggled with navigating the need to be secure and the yearning to create. I’ve always been attracted to folks that are outwardly artistic because I admire their ability to be so. Most of my ‘artistic’ friends, however, tend to believe that to truly be artistic one must always strive to create something ‘unique.’ While I appreciate that drive, to me there are various forms of art, and I’m of the opinion that to be artful and to be unique are not mutually exclusive, and again, the act of creating alone is artful and if it happens to be unique, then great (but I’m also not really convinced how ‘unique’ anything can really be).

Sophomoric Philosophy is told non-chronologically. Alex leaps from youth to adulthood then back again and back and again and back and… At times there seems to be a method to the madness and at other times it seems he is relating the facts to the reader as he is remembering them. What does the reader need to know or what should the reader know about the order of events? Is there a hidden meaning or message in the way he arranged his life for us? Are events listed in order of importance/significance? Like so much of Alex’s day to day thinking, is the arrangement musical?

The funny thing is the first drafts of SP were much more scattered. Thanks to my editor R.A. Miller who really guided me in rearranging chapters, deleting some, writing new ones, the final order of SP does have a rhyme and reason. The first chapter starts in the present, establishing that Alex is telling his story in the present (or really in the middle 00’s), and it then proceeds to flash back to his youth growing up in Chicago and his family moving to Des Plaines, a blue-collar suburb of Chicago. The chapters go on from there following Alex grow as a youth and as an adult. The back and forth is mostly between Alex as a youth and as an adult, mostly at a whim, as the memories hit him, but I it as his comparing and contrasting himself, his troubles he’s having with relationships and identity as an adult versus how he handled similar problems as a youth, and how there’s some troubling similarities. In the end Alex focuses more on his late teenage years, almost forgetting some of the adult problems he was having that drove to want to write his story because he kind of stumbles on something that, in the end, provides him with the energy to go forward as an adult. Other aspects of Alex sprinkled in throughout is that of him being Mexican-American and his relationship with his abusive father. You can see it’s something he’s thinking about but not quite ready to fully explore (more because I as an author wasn’t quite ready to delve fully into that). Your question about whether the arrangement is musical is interesting as it’s been asked a few times. I reference over 70-something songs in SP, and that’s because I’m interested in how music plays a role in our development (and I just really like music). I’ve had people try to decipher whether there was some kind of arrangement of the songs, or have had people remark that I was just really writing about songs (like each chapter was supposed to be an interpretation of a song or set of songs). Truth is there was no such arrangement or purpose – at least not intentional.

Alex seems to have some pretty great insights into Generation X and what it meant to be young and alive during the 80s and 90s. He understands complicated social networks that high school and popularity, socioeconomic status, and beauty inevitably create for us. He also understands music and film and the way they create social groups that bind us to our peers. It isn’t necessarily easy to decipher form the text itself, so I have to ask; are those insights that Alex was able to perceive as a young man, while he was experiencing them in real time, or is that Alex speaking in hindsight as a little-bit-older and a little-bit-wiser thirty-something?

As I explained before, Alex is this hyper-aware individual who’s always analyzing his status in social circles, friends, what he’s into and what he’s not into. So the perceptions are ones that Alex as a youth was aware of, but certainly they’re now refined or acute from his perspective as adult, even more so because Alex is aware that these same sort of social cliques exist, and in certain cases are stronger among adults. Because of this he’s a person who’s drifting between different groups, always weary of being too immersed in any one of them, like he’s always worried about not completely fitting in so he doesn’t totally try. Therefore he looks very middle of the road, ordinary, and so you’d never know that he’s listening to something like death metal or techno at the present, you know?

As keen as Alex’s observations into Generation X seem, he implies that ther is a generation gap that exists between his generation and the youth of today that makes it hard for him to understand them, collectively. What do you think causes a generation gap like that, and what do you see as the primary difference between Generation X and the youth of today? What are some of their similarities? After all, don’t all boys from all generations just want bong hits and blow jobs while listening to their favorite albums? Or there something else that sets today’s youth apart from their predecessors?

Growing up, I was always interested in how adults would complain that we were not like them when they were young, that the music was so much better when they were growing up, etc. I would tell myself they believed that because they had just lost touched, weren’t really listening to Motley Cru or Guns N’ Roses like we were and therefore just didn’t get how kickass they were. So I promised myself that I would not lose touch like that. I like to think that I do well in terms of keeping up with music and trends, but I know that I am beginning to lose touch with today’s youth. The biggest driver behind that is technology. Also, as an adult, you just don’t have the same kind of time to get immersed in such things (at least for most adults). As a child I had access to telephone, cars, cable television, all which now seems outdated but back then was really new to my parents. And now my children will grow up with small devices much more powerful than our “smart-phones” where they can access all the information they need, at some point the devices will probably be ingrained them. They’ll not know books or albums how I did, but what they’ll be into will be so much more different than what I experienced that I can’t say whether it will be better or worse. In the book Alex misses how when he was young he and his friends would be able to scream out loud the verses to their favorite songs, how they loved entire albums. I think today’s youth still do that, but just in different ways.

Alex’s high school AP English teacher say that “the purpose of all different forms of writing is ultimately the same – to make sense of our existence.” I always thought of the written language in a less romantic sense. I believe the primary function of writing is to communicate. How would you answer that question? What is the primary purpose of writing?

Well, writing certainly is a form of communication, I agree, but it’s one of many forms of communication, as is speech, audio / visual recording and sharing. I think what’s different about writing is that it’s not just a form of communication, but it’s a form of documentation. And that’s an important difference to me. We communicate by talking to each other or through physical gestures, etc., but when we want to communicate something in a way that it can be shared with others because we want it to be a historical record, an artistic statement, a fact to be analyzed in business or social settings, we write it down (or now record it somehow). So what the teacher in SP was getting at is that the act of writing a history, a story, a philosophy, the reason we want to do any of that at all, is to try and document our histories, perspectives, capture our imaginations, ultimately for the purpose of making sense of our existence. It’s like we’re these self-aware beings, we know we are doing things, but not always immediately sure why or whether what we’re doing is ‘right’. And so we are driven to document our actions, almost so others after us can try and make sense of what happened. So yes, the basic form of writing or communication facilitates are interactions socially, but the act of writing to document a story or history or a law, I think, is to try and convey with others what the hell is happening.

How much of your own life and experience and philosophy do we find in your protagonist Alejandro “Alex” Lopez?

A lot, most of it, well more like 60% of it based on real people and events, and the rest made-up or based on real people and events but embellished. The idea of who Alex is, though, for sure is all me (for better or worse).

FAB 5. MIKE YOUNG & FRIENDS OF MIKE YOUNG

2011-08-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

MIKE YOUNG

1) "The Peaches Are Cheap"

http://www.hobartpulp.com/website/december/young.html

2) "The Fire Hazard"

http://www.alicebluereview.org/eight/prose/young.html

3) "None Of It Grace"

http://www.pindeldyboz.com/mygrace.htm

4) "Burk's Nub"

http://route9litmag.com/post/6766361873/burks-nub

5) "None Of Us Would Meet Her In the House of Mystery"

http://allthingsburn.tumblr.com/post/3102376063/new-fiction-from-mike-youngandmaurice-burford

FRIENDS

1) "The Kid" by Rachel B Glaser:

http://www.elimae.com/2007/December/Kid.html

2) "Eight Times In the Everywhere" by Gabe Durham:

http://www.thievesjargon.com/workview.php?work=1195

3) "Life Would Be This Way" by Jimmy Chen:

http://www.necessaryfiction.com/stories/jimmy-chen-life-would-be-this-way-

4) "'Eat or Die' Is Only an Unpleasant Threat" by Ofelia Hunt:

http://elimae.com/2007/April/Eat.html

5) "Babyfat" by Claudia Smith:

http://www.noojournal.com/view.php?mode=1&issue=eight&id=153 (cheating a little because this is in NOÖ, and really I could pick anything from NOÖ, but it's so good)

AUTHOR INTERVIEW. JOSH OLSEN

2011-08-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

JOSH OLSEN

SIX MONTHS

TAINTED COFFEE PRESS

SHORT FICTION

http://zygoteinmycoffee.com/taintedcoffeepress/sixmonths.html

1. You speak so openly and honestly about your life, your childhood, parents, wife and children, your fears and insecurities, that this collection of short fictions often feels like a memoir told in tiny vignettes. Is that an accurate way to approach this?

Sure, you could approach my book as if it's a memoir, and if a reader did so I would take that as a compliment, because I love to read memoirs, such as those written by David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, and I love writing that's in the style of memoirs, such as Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, but I would would never refer to my book as a memoir because the first word that comes to mind when I think of the genre is "nonfiction," and no matter how much of what I write is inspired by moments that I actually experienced, or at the very least witnessed, I cannot say with a straight face that any of what I write is nonfiction. I take liberties with the truth. I exagerrate. I speculate. I lie. And I do so for the sake of the story. To make it more entertaining. To make it a better read. But I suppose that's not to say that what I write isn't "true." Is that too much of a contradiction?

2. There is a level of honesty to your writing that is very very rare, even amongst so many contemporary writers whose intentions are to be "edgy" or "gritty" or whatever other label you wanna slap on it. Do you ever have any hesitations about putting the private lives of you and your loved ones on display for public consumption? Do you ever fear the repercussions of discussing you and your wife's sexual practices, your young son's seemingly feminine bathroom habits, your mother's bulimia, your personal feelings of shame and guilt? How does your family feel about being publicly dissected? As a father of two girls I am always curious about other writer's opinions on this subject, so please feel free to riff for awhile. I'm sure there are plenty of people interested in this subject, but I dont hear it discussed very often. Please dig in.

I suppose I lack something that could be considered a basic self-censoring function. I'm generally a pretty shy and restrained person, but once I open up I have difficulty holding back, and when it comes to my writing process I suppose I don't really try to think about how revealing I'm being, at any given time. If something happens, and I think it'll make for a good story, I'll write about it, no matter how personal it may be. No matter how unflattering it may be. And I think, for the most part, I don't write anything that's mean. My goal isn't to insult or offend anyone. And if there's anyone in my stories who's being made fun of its usually me. I have a pretty self-deprecating sense of humor.

My intention is never to be edgy or gritty, because I really don't think anything I write about is either of those things, I just aim for honesty, and I think it generally works in my favor. I seem to get a generally positive response from those who've read my stories. Even my firends and loved ones, who I tend to often incorporate into my stories, they love it when I write about them. I actually have a couple firends who recently notified me that they were dissapointed that they didn't end up in my book. (So maybe I'll take a second now to acknowledge Say Moua and all my other Asian brethren.) My significant other/lady friend/partner, Katie, enjoys my stories...I think. My mom enjoys my stories. Maybe that's a problem, but I don't see it as one. I remember a Bukowski quote of one sort that stated, in so many words, that if your parents like your writing then its gotta be bad, but I don't think that has to be the case.

My kids, on the other hand, they're still far too young to read just about anything I write, though they know that I do write, and I don't know how I feel about them eventually reading my stuff. Perhaps they won't ever. Maybe they just won't care. But if they do, I'm concerned about what they might think. Because I think some of what I write about could be taken in the wrong light. But I have to admit, my children make me nervous. They scare me, to an extent. And now they're growing and changing in front of me and it seems so alien. Like they're these weird, radioactive, mutating things. And its not like I wasn't disgusted with my own changing body, because I was, and still sort of am, but now I have these things in my house, and they're changing in front of me, rather quickly, and somehow I'm supposed to pretend like it doesn't freak me out. But it does! It makes me nervous. Very, very nervous.

And so I write about it, and I think that maybe that's connecting with some readers, as well. I get responses from parents who compliment me on how I write about having to wipe my son's ass, and they've never seen that in a story or poem before, and they like that, and then I'll get a response from someone who liked the exact same story, but they don't have kids, and their response is, like, "Wow, I'm so glad I don't have kids!" It works on different levels, but I'm glad there's some flexibility in there. Maybe there isn't much to interpret or analyze in the story, itself, but those varying reactions fascinate me, even if I feel someone has read the story incorrectly. If that's possible. But still, I do not attempt to correct them. That's not my job.

3. There are a lot of things that happen in these stories that would make most people say "that was pretty fucked up." But your narrator rarely, if ever, condemns, critizes, or passes judgement on people or situations (except on himself). Your general attitude seems to be that of a journalist, stating what happened and moving on to another significant event in your life. Is that a fair statement or am I off the mark? Did you make a conscious effort not to overanalyze too much for the reader or is that your own personality finding its way into the pages?

Over the years, I've really struggled with the amount of commentary, or lack there of, in my writing. When I first began writing, I received a comment from a professor I looked up to that my writing was didactic. That I used to tell my readers how to feel. And that struck a nerve with me, because I wanted the reactions to be natural. I wanted them to react how they might naturally react, had they witnessed or experienced a similar situation. And so I consciously stepped back, as a narrator.

But then, oddly enough, several years later, I was in a manuscript workshop with the poet Tony Hoagland and he said that my writing seemed unorchestrated. There didn't seem to be any clear sense of rhyme or reason, which I thought was pretty ironic considering that I had previously been called didactic. And so, since then, I think I've tried to strike a balance between the two, but maybe I still lean more towards Hoagland's comment. Maybe I'm still a bit too unorchestrated. But really, I don't want to tell my readers how or what to think about my stories, so maybe that's why I tend to get varying responses.

In my opinion, it just seems more natural that way.

And when it comes down to the more "fucked up" moments that I write about, I guess I'm just not that shocked by them. I react to them, and I'm moved by them enough to the point that I feel that they're worth writing about, but to me they just don't seem that fucked up.

Its not that I'm jaded or calloused or emotionally stunted or anything like that, I just think I have a higher tolerance for shit than most people, and I have a rather twisted sense of humor, and so I try to make those moments as entertaining and engaging as I can.

4. When most writers deal with childhood in short fiction, it is done in one of three ways: 1) My childhood was great and I miss it and wish I could be young again. 2) I wish I could go back and do things different, make things right, not make the same mistakes, etc etc. 3) My childhood was more fucked up than yours, blah blah blah... But you manage to avoid those three avenues. You seem to say, "ok, this happened... then this happened... and this happened..." You don't point out correlations between childhood and adulthood for the reader. You don't try to offer any cause and effect. Any that might be found is done so by the reader drawing their own conclusions. How have you managed to avoid the first three pitfalls (maybe not pitfalls but I can't think of a better word) and adopt this very matter of fact way of telling the reader about your childhood?

I guess how I manage to avoid those three pitfalls is that I really don't feel that way about my childhood. I don't miss my childhood. I don't really have any regrets about what I did or how I did them. I really don't think my childhood was that fucked up. Of course I'm nostalgic about certain things, but I don't think I've ever wanted to relive my childhood. Ever. And it wasn't because it was that bad, but I had a hard time with many things, and so I always looked forward to growing up and experiencing newer, better things. And I still do. I sort of look forward to aging. I don't have any regrets, though I've definitely made some mistakes, big mistakes, in my life, but those mistakes eventually lead me to where I am now. And I would never get into a pissing contest with anyone about how fucked up my childhood was because I know some people, people I'm very close with, that have had legitimately fucked up childhoods and mine doesn't even come close. My childhood really wasn't that fucked up, it wasn't hard, per se, but it may have been nontraditional. And, of course, for the sake of my stories, I emphasize those nontraditional aspects. And I guess maybe why I seem so matter of fact is because I'm still not quite too sure about how I should react to some of things I've experienced and written about. My reactions to various memories have changed as I've gotten older. Some things in my life that I used to really kind of mourn over I think I've gotten past. For me, its about moving on, and writing really does help me move on.

I think I've psychoanalyzed myself to death.

5. There is a tenderness to your prose. You treat many of your characters with care and fragility despite their flaws. Was that deliberate? Were you making a greater statement about all of humanity being worthy of love and redemption? Is this the narrator's subconscious balancing out his own sense of shame and guilt? Are my psychoanalytic lines of questioning getting annoying? Give us your own analysis.

Oh, its absolutely deliberate.

I mean, I'm writing about my family and my friends, for the most part, so I do care for them, I care for my characters, I care immensely, and in life its never my intention to be cruel to them, though that's not to say that I haven't been known to be an asshole, on the occasion, but I don't see my writing about them, or characters based upon them, as an opportunity to mock or insult them. For me, that wouldn't be honest. That wouldn't be who I am. I wouldn't use my writing as a way to stab them in the back, even if they didn't eventually read it. Even if, say, I used a pseudonym. I wouldn't change what I say about them. And the flaws are what make them beautiful, you know? It gives them character and substance and depth.

Who wants to be friends or lovers with a "flawless" man or woman? For one, I don't think there is such a thing, but if there was they would be fucking boring!

And is this some sort of grand statement about human nature? About loving your neighbor and all that jazz? Not intentionally, no. When I write, I really don't have any sort of grand idea in mind, I just try to be as specific, and as precise, as possible. I'm not aiming for a message of any sort. Do I think that all of humanity is worthy of love and redemption, as you asked? For the most part, I do. But I don't have that goal in mind while I'm writing. And until you mentioned it I wouldn't have said anything like that in regard to my stories. But that's the great thing about literature (and I sincerely apologize for just referring to my writing as literature), that the reader can take something away from it that the author didn't intend. To hell with authorial intention, you know what I mean? It gets in the way. If that's what you take away from my book, that's fantastic! Who am I to say otherwise? Someone else might just like it that I like to talk about masturbation.

And maybe my, or the narrator's, shame and guilt does have something to do with it, but who among us has no shame, no guilt? So maybe that's how we should all behave?

I think the world could do with a little more love and redemption.

And masturbation, too.

6. Quite a few of these stories, including the collection's opener, "On a Train Back to Michigan" make reference to states from the Great Lakes region. Being a native of this area, how have the Great Lake states influenced not only your writing, but you as a human being?

I'm not really too sure about how the Great Lake states have influenced me as a human being, because I really don't have any basis for comparison. Its really just a matter of the fact that that's where I've lived my whole life. I was born in Wisconsin. Spent my first four or so years there. Moved to Iowa for about six months. Moved back to Wisconsin and stayed there until I was 23, but moved within the state, on average, about once a year, then lived in Minnesota for a couple years, then shipped out where I've lived for the past six years, in Michigan. I would have to say that more than where I've lived, geographically, what's influenced me even more is how often I've had to move. There were times, such as when I was in the first grade, that I moved three or four times in one year, and attended three different elementary schools. So I would have to say that that influenced me more than where I actualy lived.

7. Do you think prose from the Great Lakes has any unique qualities of its own that differentiates its from prose from other more established, recognizeable cultural regions? Who are its authors?

But maybe, to follow along with general ideas about the Midwest, or the Great Lake states, there's a sense of politeness that doesn't seem to be so prevelant in other areas. And I don't think there's nearly as much of a sense of privelege or entitlement. But, then again, I've met plenty of self-entitled assholes from the Midwest, so I hate to generalize.

When I think of Great Lakes/Midwest authors, the first names that come to mind are Tim O'Brien, Philip Levine, Carl Sandburg. The working man's writer. The working man's poets.

David Blair was/is an incredible poet/songwriter/performer from Detroit (born in New Jersey) that just passed a couple weeks ago. An absolutely mind-blowing talent.

A voice of the people.

8. If this book were a movie, what actor would play the narrator? KT? What about some of the other characters, who would play these folks?

Haha!...You have no idea how many different people I've been told I resemble over the years. Scott Baio. Corey Feldman. Tony Danza. Charlie Sheen. Michael Madsen. James Gandolfini. But, Jesus, who would I have play me/the narrator in a movie? Not that I look like him or anything, but maybe Mark Ruffalo? Or Seth Rogan, if he shaved his head. KT could be played by Cate Blanchett or Uma Thurman. Jack could be played by, I don't know, some unknown child actor. And Bella could be Elle Fanning (Dakota's younger sister). Ellen Burstyn could play my mom. I see her receiving a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

9. Who or what were you reading / watching / listening to at the time you crafted this collection? How long did it take you to complete, start to finish?

What was I reading, watching, and listening to while I wrote this book?

Everything.

Is that vague enough?

It took a rather long time to get this thing out, probably much longer than it should have taken me, and so I couldn't even begin to say what, exactly, I was taking in at the time. I would say, though, that during that time I discovered Raymond Carver and James Baldwin. Yes, I know I found them kind of late in life. Sharon Olds, too. A lot of comic books. Alternative comic books, like Johnny Ryan, Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, and Daniel Clowes. I love the Walking Dead and have been reading it for about five years now.

I listen to a lot of stand-up comedy albums. I'm a big comedy nerd. Louis CK, David Cross, Patton Oswalt, Bill Hicks. Lenny Bruce, of course.

I spend a lot of free time wathcing documentaries. Profiles on odd and eccentric personalities like in American Movie, Crumb, and Grizzly Man.

I tend to stray to more character driven work. In movies and books and other creative outlets, I'm atttracted to characters, and so that's what I tend to absorb.

The oldest story in SIX MONTHS is about five years old, but I feel like I've been writing this book since about 1999, when I first began to write with serious intentions. Ever since then, I've been working towards something, and this one book is the culmination of all that time and ink.

Its a rather short book, I know, but I kind of like the fact that you can read it in one sitting, in an hour or two, which is fine with me.

Its like, how long does it take to listen to your favorite album or watch your favorite movie?

You can have a damn good time in an hour or two, and I hope that's what this book will accomplish.

And I just want to say thanks for writing this book. Much much respect. Very well done, sir.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for your support. And thanks for the questions!

10 FAVORITE BOOKS I READ SO FAR THIS YEAR

2011-08-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

(without commentary or justification and maybe not in order, except for the first one)

1. once upon a river - bonnie jo campbell

2. lark and termite - jayne anne phillips

3. the avian gospels - adam novy

4. look look feathers - mike young

5. islands in the stream - ernest hemingway

6. the wind up bird chronicle - murakami

7. how they were found - matt bell

8. tongue party - sarah rose etter

9. s. - john updike

10. alt. punk - lavinia ludlow

honorable mentions

11. the gospel of anarchy - justin taylor

12. six months - josh olsen

10 books i want to read really badly before the year is over

everything ever written by scott mcclanahan

1. murakami - 1q84

2. lost memory of skin - russell banks

3. normally special - xtx

4. the book of freaks - jamie iredell

5. the devil all the time - donald ray pollock

6. kafka on the shore - murakami

7. you can make him like you - ben tanzer

8. daddy's - lindsay hunter

9. please dont be upset - brandi wells

10. a super sad true love story - gary styngart

NOTHING OR NEXT TO NOTHING. REVIEW. THE COLLAGIST. PAULA BOMER

2011-08-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Pretty amazing review of NOTHING OR NEXT TO NOTHING over at THE COLLAGIST.

Thanks very much to the fine folks over there and especially to PAULA BOMER for the excellent review.

http://www.dzancbooks.org/the-collagist/2011/8/15/nothing-or-next-to-nothing-by-barry-graham.html

Here's an excerpt:

"Whether you agree with Derek or not, he's a thinking man, a thinking man numbing his pain and disconnect with the world with drugs, doing the best he can to provide for himself and his loved ones and offering us a bird's eye view of some difficult circumstances, not all of which are beyond his control. What will happen to Derek? What happens to his sister, the biggest thing at the center of his heart? It's very much worth reading the minutia of vileness, indeed, important and relevant to do so, to find out."

SUPERMOJOMANIA READING IN INDY

2011-07-11T13:20:00.001-07:00

http://supermojomania2011.blogspot.com/

July 18th - Monday

BIG CAR'S SERVICE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURE + COMMUNITY

3919 Lafayette Rd.
Indianapolis, IN

Readers

Sean Lovelace

Roxane Gay

Barry Graham

Matt Mullins

Jesus Angel Garcia

Steve Himmer

Micah Ling

Laura Adamczyk

Jim Walker

John Clark

Jessica Dyer

Kevin McKelvey

Layne Ransom

Bryan Furuness

White, Used, Dirty: A Plastic Fork in the Road

2011-06-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

To resist nature seems natural, human—whatever that means. Cities and shit. There are so many paths to choose from. Someone, please invent a new human who will go a different way. One that doesn’t hurt other humans. One that doesn’t hurt the world it lives in. One that isn’t human.

Humans believe in things. Please invent a new form of lying, one that doesn’t hurt anyone or the world in which the lie is spoken. A form of lying that doesn’t exist, or at least one that is never required and so might as well not exist.

Whole forests are devoted to the growth of the fiction industry, and growth is, of course, the most sustainable of all fictions. We can all grow. Growth is inspirational. Authors have to earn income. Trees grow, too. Fork it over.

I should maybe subscribe to whole-house DVR because there is no [g]od. No one will ever be complete or find closure in anything they ever do in their lives. We are no more lost than one another. Nothing sticks. What kind of fork is this. Don’t lie to me.

I fell out of my family tree and broke my thought bone. I don’t remember what it was connected to. Humans are so unremarkable. I just noticed I’m almost out of peanut butter. I’m so lonely.

People are very supportive of other people whose success they hope to mirror, if not surpass. My goal to become the least read/regarded writer in the world continues to be achieved with almost no effort on my part. Or anyone else's. That sentence about my goal was passive. I am a passive sentence. I have no goal.

How I’m good at not being good enough for anyone. Tonight I’m giving myself piercings with a hole punch. I will punch so many holes that I just won’t be there anymore. Even now, you can see right through me. It takes so much to cry in reverse.

From my high chair I’m starring in my own diaper commercial. I’m twirling oatmeal in a plastic bowl with a fork. I’m crying with my mouth open. My lips feel glued together. I put my finger in the oatmeal. I have so much more to say about a fork.

I once heard a story about a little boy who threw up underwater. Someone saved him from his insides and everyone was happy. Now everyone wants to be saved. No one wonders what the boy ate, despite what they saw floating along the surface of the water.

Humans believe in things. The tines of inspiration. Look at your hands. Inspirational things can be very, very dangerous. I’m white, used, dirty. A plastic fork in the road.

I don’t need [g]od to feed me. I’d be waiting forever. My printer is out of ink and I can’t stop looking at pictures of dead zebras on the internet. Everything dies. The blood of Christ is eventually extracted from a full bladder by gravity through the human urethra.

Eternity has been known to last a lifetime. Earlier I noticed my shoelace was untied. I’m so lonely.

Pass the holy water. My piercings are getting infected because there is no [g]od. Pour the water all over me, into all my holes. Punch holes in the water. Holy water. Punch through me. I’m right here. I'm thirsty.

If there was a [g]od, I would maybe not need to record several television programs at once in every room of my house. There’s got to be a premium package for that. There’s so much I don’t want to miss. People do handstands, for Christ's sake.

To resist nature seems religious. I can just sit at home and watch that on television. A universal remote wouldn’t really let me do anything.

We’re all going to die. There are so many blogs to read. Most blogs I read lately barely get any comments. I’m not sure anymore who’s connecting with who, if anyone—or about what, if anything.

Eventually, it seems natural to eat with your hands.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON READS ADAM MANSBACH'S GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP

2011-06-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

ADAM MANSBACH's book GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP. read by SAMUEL L. JACKSON.

Pretty funny shit.

http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B00551W570

You may have to download that audio program first, but do it, it only takes a quick second and its well worth it.

SO YOU THINK YOU HAVE NERVES OF STEEL. WV STYLE

2011-06-10T11:40:00.001-07:00

CONGRATS. SUKANYA ROY. SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMPION 2011

2011-06-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

"Cymotrichous" is defined as "having wavy hair." But for 14-year-old Sukanya Roy—the winner of this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee, which just wrapped up outside Washington, DC—it means $25,000 cash, a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 bond, a Barnes & Noble Nook, and the title of the best middle school speller in the country.

- Matt Cherette

http://gawker.com/5808086/watch-the-winning-moment-of-the-2011-scripps-national-spelling-bee

ARTIST INTERVIEW: SARAH SELLERS

2011-06-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

SARAH SELLERS

Musician, American Idol Season 10 Contestant, Foodie, and blogger at Sarah's Musical Kitchen

BG: I think when we were kids, our first exposure to music, for better or worse, was whatever our parents were listening too. I came up on classic country from both sides, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs. And a part of me still loves that genre very much. Is it the same for you? What music were you first exposed to and how did that exposure come? Do you still love it now? Do you find yourself returning to it for comfort, listening to it or singing it?

SS: Yes yes and yes! Ha it’s funny because I grew up in a pretty strict household until I was a young teenager. My parents were ordained ministers and my mother was a preacher’s kid and choir director. So, needless to say, my exposure to anything that wasn’t Christian music was pretty much limited to Whitney Houston.

During the audition process we had to do a quick interview for the Idol website at the end of a very long day. The last question was, who is your favorite performer of all time, I don’t know why my mind went so far back, but the words, Whitney Houston came out of my mouth. Not a single one of my favorite singers of today, but one of the very first artists I was exposed to. He must have asked a question earlier that triggered my inner most childhood memories, because all I could think about was time spent dancing in the living room to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” when I was about 4 years old.

So in my usual long winded fashion, Gospel and R&B music will always strike a chord with me and bring back some amazing childhood memories. It definitely had a huge influence on how I sing to this day.

BG: Tell me something about American Idol that someone watching at home wouldn't know.

SS: Well to some this might be fairly obvious because they talked about it so much in the news this year, but the audition rounds you see on TV are not the first initial rounds. It’s actually the fourth round. You have to go through a huge cattle call audition followed by a few producer auditions before you even meet the judges. So to make it even that far is quite an accomplishment.

BG: On your blog, Sarah's Musical Kitchen, you said "Do you have that one genre of food that hits every inch of your taste buds?" For me, growing up in Amish Country, I'm a sucker for simple foods, beef and potatoes, chicken and buttered noodles. You answered "Well, I do, and it’s Mexican food. Throw some chiles, cumin, cilantro, avocados…etc etc…into any dish and I’m immediately comforted." How did that happen? What is your connection to Mexican food and how/why has it become an annual birthday feast in your household?

SS: Chicken and buttered noodles are delicious by the way. I am completely and utterly obsessed with Mexican food. There really is never a time that I get sick of it because it has all of the flavor combinations I crave. My first connection with Mexican Food is my family’s obsession with it as well. It’s pretty unhealthy actually, I think we all need to seek help. When I was little it was our weekly tradition to go out and eat Mexican Food. My dad is also an amazing Cajun cook who has cooked with a lot of spice ever since I could remember. So now, if I don’t have some level of heat in my food I almost don’t enjoy it.

I moved to Texas about 8 years ago and the Tex-Mex down here is unlike any other Mexican Food in the country (strongly opinionated about this subject if you can’t tell). If I ever move away from Texas I know I’ll be okay because I’ve eaten so much Tex-Mex that little bits of inspiration make its way into practically everything I cook, and I can make some mean Mexican Food.

BG: Who's sexier: Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, or Randy Jackson?

SS: Jennifer Lopez, I swear she glowed in person.

BG: Being a Blues and Soul singer / songwriter from Dallas, TX, what artists from those respective genres do you admire most? How has that particular region of the country affected your music?

SS: There are so many amazing artists throughout the years that have inspired me. Right now the artists that have inspired me the most, musically, have been Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys, Joss Stone, Etta James, Johnny Lang, John Legend, and of course Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, Aretha…and on and on. Blues and Soul music strikes the biggest chord with me and it’s always what I turn to when I need a little soul pick me up.

BG: If you could steal anyone's voice who's would it be?

SS: Right now I would have to say Beyonce. That woman is flawless and as a vocalist I listen to what she can do, and the notes she hits with such ease yet with so much power, and I’m amazed. Like her music or not, that girl has some impressive pipes on her and she’s amazing live.

BG: As an artist, what is the appeal of being on a show like American Idol? Other than winning, what do you hope to accomplish by auditioning / making it to Hollywood, etc?

SS: Definitely the exposure more than anything. It’s a great platform that propels you in front of millions of people so quickly. Someone like me living so far from New York or LA, sometimes it’s hard to get out there and make a dent in such a huge industry. American Idol definitely gives people like me an amazing opportunity, and I’ve always just loved the show.

BG: As artists, I think we all have that one song, that one book, that one painting, that one really great dish, that we wished we would have gotten to first. As a fiction writer, I really really wish I wrote The Cat in The Hat. What about you? What do you wish you would have gotten to first?

SS: Flautas. I wish I would have invented Flautas. Those simple, crispy, and delicious golden corn tortillas stuffed with cheesy goodness. Perfection.

BG: Who's your favorite musician that nobody's ever heard of?

SS: I don’t really listen to a lot of bands that are that unknown. I’ve been a huge fan of Ellie Goulding for the last few years and am happy to see she’s starting to make an impact here in the states. Her voice is so unique and refreshing, love her.

BG: What instruments do you play and what originally inspired you to learn them? What's your favorite? Which are you best at?

SS: I’ve been playing the piano for about 23 years now and was classically trained for 12 of those years. I started taking vocal lessons when I was 6 and learning the piano just fell right in with it. I stop playing for a few years and have finally made my way back to the keys over the last year or so and it feels better than ever. I definitely have a new found respect for the piano that I’ve never had before.

BG: Who's sexier: Bobby Flay, Rachel Ray, Anthony Bourdain?

SS: Um Bobby Flay!! He whips up some Southwest Cuisine like no other, and that is pretty sexy.

BG: What is your favorite cooking show?

SS: I really can’t pick a favorite but I would say my top 3 are Giada at Home, Chopped, and Iron Chef America.

BG: Where does your inspiration come from to write lyrics? What song have you written that you are most proud of? Why?

SS: I pull a lot of inspiration from the people around me and what they’ve gone through. I’m surprised at how dark most of my music is because I’m such an upbeat person. But I’m specifically drawn to different minor and inverted chord structures and their darker overtones. So I tend to create stories in my mind to match the melody I write on the piano. I’m working on writing up beat songs more often and my husband has definitely been the inspiration for the happy songs.

My latest original, What’s it Like, I’m very proud of because it’s the most personal and honest song I’ve ever written. It’s just about my dreams and the fears that keep me from them. When I started writing it the words just came out so quickly. I’m trying to tap into that inspiration again for some new tunes I’m working on.

BG: Where did your love for food come from and what is your earliest memory of you cooking? What dish are you most proud of? Why?

SS: My love for food started with my dad. I remember sitting on the counter and helping him put the seafood in the gumbo when I was a little girl. He was never afraid to cook with exotic ingredients and lots of spice when we were young, and it definitely had an impact on my love for food.

The dish I’m most proud of would have to be my Southwest Chicken Spring Rolls. I made them just the other day and they were sooo good. They have the perfect blend of spice and southwest flavors and were so simple. I like simple and delicious.

BG: Who is your favorite person to cook for? Why?

SS: My husband hands down. He has the best ideas for dishes and he’s not picky at all. Even when some of my best cooking attempts have gone so horribly wrong, he can still find something positive in the dish. When I’m stumped and have run out of ideas I always turn to him and he’ll give me 10.

BG: Who's the best American Idol contestant from any season not to make the Top 12? Who is the best Top 12 contestant not to win? Who is the best American idol of all-time? Who deserved to win the least?

SS: My favorite contestant not to make it to the Top 12, I have to say Kendra Chantelle of this last season. That girl was cut way too soon. She has amazing vocal skill and is absolutely gorgeous.

For the best non winning top 12 contestant I have to say Adam Lambert because he was the first person to pop in my mind. He’s one of those, love him or hate him, but you can’t deny the skill.

I would have said Kelly Clarkson was the best American Idol of all time, but I’m leaning towards Carrie Underwood now. Every time I see her perform she sounds better and better and she’s flawless live.

I hate to say that someone didn’t deserve to win it because you had to have worked your ass off to make it that far, so props to all of the winners and non-winners.

BG: What are your three favorite books of all-time?

SS: My two favorites growing up were A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Great Expectations. For some of my recent favorites, I think I’ll have to keep those to myself (blushing).

BG: What do you love more, singing or cooking? Why?

SS: They are both my two biggest passions, but singing will always be my first. I’ve always been a foodie but have just discovered my love of cooking within the past 5 years. I’ve been singing my whole life and it’s definitely what brings me the most joy.

BG: McDonald's. Love it or hate it?

SS: Oh no, I’m going to make some enemies here…um, no comment.

BG: What will be going on in Sarah's life 10 years from now?

SS: Hopefully lots of cooking, lots of singing, and raising a family that I can cook for and sing to!

BG: If you could sing a duet with anyone, past or present, who would it be?

SS: Joss Stone because she’s a recent artist that has influenced me the most in the last few years. The soul in her voice and the way she moves on stage reels me in every time I listen to her or watch her perform.

NEW BLUESTEM. JUNE 2011

2011-06-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.bluestemmagazine.com/?page_id=934

Featuring writing from: Paula Bomer, Gary Percesepe, Devan Goldstein, Jen Michalski, Chloe Caldwell, Curtis Smith, Kyle Hemmings, Tim Jones-Yelvington, J. Bradley, Kristine Ong Muslim, and many more.

THE LIT PUB

2011-06-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

New site for literary goodness and fellowship. THE LIT PUB.

http://thelitpub.com/

From the website:

MISSION

Our mission is to promote a sustainable literary community by introducing readers to authors we know and love. By providing a public gathering place for ongoing conversations, we aim to connect readers, authors, publishers, and other independent artists of all creative disciplines.

DECOMP. JUNE 2011

2011-05-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

decomP: a literary magazine

www.decompmagazine.com

From the Editor-in-Chief

By Jason Jordan

Welcome to our June 2011 issue, featuring new work from Erica W. Adams, James Best, Peter Kispert, Harmony Neal, C. J. Opperthauser, Patricia McKernon Runkle, Richard Jay Shelton, Gary J. Shipley, Tristan Silverman, Parker Tettleton, and Cassandra Troyan. Additionally, we have reviews of Blake Butler's There Is No Year, Justin Taylor's The Gospel of Anarchy, and Laura Yes Yes's How to Seduce a White Boy in Ten Easy Steps. Thanks for reading!

PRIZE WINNERS. RYAN BRADLEY. ARTISTICALLY DECLINED

2011-05-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

New from ARTISTICALLY DECLINED PRESS:

"So, here it is. Prize Winners, stories by Ryan W. Bradley. 112 page collection of stories "not for the faint of heart... or loins." There are 18 stories in the book, 3 of which are unpublished, 5 of which have previously only been available in print. The collection includes the mildly infamous "Every Time A Fairy Gets Laid," a story that will forever change the way you see Tinkerbell. You can read some of Bradley's thoughts on the collection HERE.

Bradley is more than an intrepid editor and designer for ADP, he's putting himself on the line as our guinea pig for this "pop-up release" project, a series we hope will prove a new way for us to be able to publish a few more books a year.

Over the next few weeks a few reviews will appear, as per the "pop-up release" guidelines we set for ourselves. Until then: GO FORTH AND PREORDER "

FAB 5. ADAM ROBINSON & MARY MILLER

2011-05-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

ADAM ROBINSON

"The Last Book I Loved" at The Rumpus

https://therumpus.net/2009/09/adam-robinsonthe-last-book-i-loved-alaska/

"My Point of View" at Otoliths

http://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2009/01/adam-robinson-my-point-of-view-beauty.html

"I'm Going to Have SEX with These People" at Lamination Colony

http://www.laminationcolony.com/arobinson.html

"Curtis Ebbesmeyer" at We Are Champion

http://www.wearechampionmag.com/issue1/seventeen.html

"Well That's Interesting: Boats" at HTMLGiant

http://htmlgiant.com/craft-notes/well-thats-interesting-boats/#more-44580

MARY MILLER

Girls/Paper & Tassels

http://www.journaloftruthandconsequence.com/MaryMiller.html

Angel

http://www.vestalreview.net/issue25/angel.html

South Dakota

http://www.elimae.com/fiction/Miller/Dakota.html

Fast Trains

http://www.sundresspublications.com/tpq/miller.htm

Little Brass House

http://www.coriummagazine.com/?page_id=559

STORYGLOSSIA 44. DIAPER BAGS PACKED WITH BEER

2011-05-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

STORYGLOSSIA 44

http://www.storyglossia.com/

Thomas Kearnes

Shame

Valerie O'Riordan

The Runt

Benjamin Buchholz

Pins

Donna D. Vitucci

Adobe Rain

Eric Beeny

Locksmith

Michelle Reale

Girls with Barrettes

Matthew Salesses

At Least I Felt Bad Afterward

Ashley Cowger

The Choice

Mather Schneider

Shitty

NEW SITE TO REVIEW BOOKS. MERRY ANDREW REVIEW

2011-05-22T15:57:00.001-07:00

About MERRY ANDREW REVIEW

Really? Another review site. Yup. Why are we doing this? Why not?

We don't actually write reviews so don't send us books.

If you are a writer, reviewer, editor, publisher, etc, and you've written a review or have had one written we will post it here.

Novels, novellas, magazines, anthologies, poetry, journals, whatever. It's all welcome. Previously published is fine as well. Just send it here and if it looks good, we'll post it.

Cool? Cool.

www.merryandrewreview.blogspot.com

DEAR TECUMSEH DISTRICT LIBRARY PATRON 92110275

2011-05-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

On 11/28/2009 you checked out Papa Bear's Islands In the Stream. Good choice. I checked it out a year and a half later. I'm curious though, why your library slip was sticking out as a book mark from page 168. Is that where you stopped? Before the accident? Before Paris or Cuba? Before the Sea? Why? I know The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bells Tolls, Old Man and the Sea, they get all the credit, but this is his masterpiece. The forgotten testament of a man who knew he was destined for suicide. It's all in these pages. I'm not gonna give away any details because I'm hoping somehow, by fate or by chance, you see this and return to the islands and give it a proper go through. I have faith.

R.I.P. MACHO MAN RANDY SAVAGE

2011-05-20T10:25:00.001-07:00

NEW ISSUE OF THE NORTHVILLE REVIEW. NOT BEING SHOT

2011-05-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

New issue of THE NORTHVILLE REVIEW, featuring writing from:

KIRSTY LOGAN

KENNETH POBO

ERIC BEENY

JEN MICHALSKI

THOMAS MUNDT

CEZARIJA ABARTIS

DEVON MILLER-DUGGAN

Read it, love it, embrace it.

http://northvillereview.com/

DOGZPLOT FLASH FICTION REVIEWED @ SMALL PRESS REVIEWS

2011-05-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to MARC SCHUSTER for this short and sweet review of the 2011 DOGZPLOT FLASH FICTION anthology. Here's an excerpt:

"Indeed, if Dogzplot excels at anything (and it does!), it’s bending and warping and re-shuffling the English language in order to reinvent the art of storytelling one page at a time."

Read the rest here:

http://smallpressreviews.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/dogzplot-2011/

THE SINGULAR EXPLOITS OF WONDER MOM AND PARTY GIRL. MARC SCHUSTER

2011-05-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

From MARC SCHUSTER of SMALL PRESS REVIEWS fame. One of the hardest working guys in the game. Here's a bit about his new book:

Dear Friends of Small Press Reviews,

Just a quick note to say that the new, blue edition of my novel, The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl, is now available at Amazon. If you bought the pink edition in 2009 and are wondering how the blue edition is different, check out this article by Stephen J. Gertz: One Novel. Two First Editions, Different Book. Huh? And if you haven’t read either, now’s your chance...

Needless to say, I appreciate all of the interest you've shown in Small Press Reviews in the past, and if you're curious to see the kind of stuff I write when I'm not writing book reviews, I'd love for you to check out a copy of my book.

Thanks!

--Marc Schuster

http://www.amazon.com/Singular-Exploits-Wonder-Party-Girl/dp/1579622178/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3

R.I.P. TRACTOR TRAYLOR

2011-05-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

INTERVIEW. FICTION WRITERS REVIEW. MARY GAITSKILL

2011-05-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

I really like this interview for a few reasons. One, Mary is representing Michigan. Two, she isn't afraid to say that she wasn't a very good writer in school and a certain professor didn't think she was even good enough to give her a recommendation, and also, because she admits that just because she doesn't like something doesn't mean it isn't good. Certainly a refreshing attitude coming from the world of MFA's, overly saturated with ego. Here's a bit from the interview.

There are so many students who want to write. As a teacher, do you ever believe in telling any of them, “Maybe you should try something else, this isn’t for you”?

No, I’ve never said that because I don’t think I know that. As a teacher, you just don’t know enough, especially if you are only with them for a semester. Someone can write twenty bad stories and then they write a good one; people can potentially develop very fast when they’re young. On top of that, my idea of what’s good or not may be irrelevant—a lot gets published that I don’t like at all.

Read the interview in full: http://fictionwritersreview.com/interviews/woman-to-woman-an-interview-with-mary-gaitskill

CIRCE. LOWBROW PRESS. 2011

2011-05-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

The film is a compliment to the book Circe, which will be released in fall 2011 with Lowbrow Press.

NOTHING OR NEXT TO NOTHING. REVIEW. PLUMB. LAVINIA LUDLOW

2011-05-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to LAVINIA LUDLOW for reviewing my novel at PLUMB MAGAZINE. Here's an excerpt or three from the review:

"...a distinctive contemporary voice that makes me laugh at how blatantly offensive his choice of words is, and yet, I am compelled to feel certain tenderness at the same time..."

"...I think there’s a closet romantic lurking inside Graham’s rough-around-the-edges-tough-guy façade and it definitely bubbles up from the caverns of his subconscious and emerges in his writing. Though the protagonist could be graphically describing intimacy of the most perverse nature, woven in between the obscene are gentle reminders that he really wants to find someone to love..."

"Some of his scenes made me shiver and crave a scalding hot bath with many bars of soap, maybe, to just wash out my eyes."

Read the review in its entirety here:

http://plumbblogdotnet.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/review-nothing-or-next-to-nothing-by-barry-graham/

FAB 5. DREW KALBACH & JEN MICHALSKI

2011-05-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

DREW KALBACH

NATIONAL MOVEMENT

http://drew-kalbach-pbp.blogspot.com/

TWO POEMS
http://elimae.com/2008/December/Dogs.html

INCANTATION AGAINST AN EMPIRE
http://www.laminationcolony.com/dkalbach.html

from CLOSETS
http://newwavevomit.com/newwavevomit.com/189.html

THREE POEMS
http://killauthor.com/issuethree/drew-kalbach-3/

JEN MICHALSKI

His Life Backward, Her Life Forward

http://thehoustonliteraryreview.com/fall2007fiction.aspx

(You have to click on my entry because it's a PDF issue)

Killing Rabbits

http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr18fiction.html#killingrabbits

Vital Signs

http://www.conteonline.net/issue0102/prose05_6.html

Cagarese la Leche

http://necessaryfiction.com/writerinres/CagarseenlalechebyJenMichalski

Neighbors

www.pankmagazine.com/jen-michalski/

WIGLEAF TOP 50. 2011

2011-05-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

It's back bitches. SCOTT GARSON and company put together another amazing list of TOP 50 flash fictions under 1000 words. I haven't checked it out yet, but I feel like I need a Mickey D's peach pie before I crack it. Who's with me?

Editor - SCOTT GARSON

Associate Series Editor - RAVI MANGLA

Guest Editor - LILY HOANG

WIGLEAF TOP 50

http://wigleaf.com/

The Podiatrist’s Foot

2011-05-02T20:17:00.000-07:00

“Who’s not allowed to?” is why “What?” must be asked. It’s a passionate way to ignore privacy. At least that’s the argument.

You don’t want anyone to know you’re barefoot. Recent polls among podiatrists show passion accounts only for 7.998% of a compelling argument. Size does matter.

Your fear of elegance tastes like diet Coke served by Donald Trump’s Hawaiian investigator in a Jamaican resort surrounded by New York City tenements.

You get there by airplane. The pilot’s joystick goes limp in your hand. He seems happy when his parachute pops. “What?”

You’ve duct-taped two seashells to your ears. It looks nice. You're listening to the ocean's soundtrack. You gesture to say you can’t hear me. Nevermind me.

Your sneakers are made out of old bibles and you can almost make out the word ‘Barabbas’ on one of your soles. You want to save them for nostalgic purposes. Children made them far away.

We nickname you ‘Pontius’. “Who’s not allowed to?”

When your plane goes down you’re 7.998% passionate about surviving the pilot’s privacy. You’re surrounded by parachutes, like an ant in a falling garden. On the island, sneakers hang from the power lines.

The local missionaries who invaded half a century ago give you a bible. The bible says something about diet Coke you swear is not a typo. This is not very compelling.

You decide you’ll go door-to-door in your neighborhood, absorb all your neighbors into your testicles through your urethra's straw, store them there until you die.

When you die their ghosts will seep out of your urethra in one big orgasm you’ll only be able to feel nostalgically.

It will feel like your whole body has become carbonated, like small, fizzing bubbles of diet Coke.

You'll feel around in the dark. The podiatrist’s foot will go limp in your hand.

FAB 5. SUZANNE BURNS & BEN TANZER

2011-04-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

BEN TANZER

PaintWriteDeathLifeArt (Sketches from a life in art) - decomP
http://decompmagazine.com/paintwritedeathlifeart.htm

What We Thought We Knew - RAGAD (by way of Blue Print Review and later included in Repetition Patterns)
http://www.blueprintreview.de/20whatwe.htm

Dick Cavett Says - Thieves Jargon
http://www.thievesjargon.com/workview.php?work=830

Daddy Dreariest - THE2NDHAND
http://www.the2ndhand.com/web69/daddy.html

So Different Now - Dogzplot
http://dogzplotfiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/ben-tanzer.html

SUZANNE BURNS

BALLAD OF THE STRONGMAN IN NEW YORK

http://failbetter.com/06/BurnsBallad.php

IN DEFENSE OF EVA BRAUN

http://failbetter.com/06/BurnsInDefenseOfEvaBraun.php

SNOW WHITE

http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/16/burns16.html

STORYGLOSSIA 43. GRAVITY STRETCHING THE WHITE

2011-04-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

STORYGLOSSIA never lets me down. It won't let you down either.

http://www.storyglossia.com/

Gregory J. Wolos

Cupids

Jessica Hollander

Jokes

Ravi Mangla

Murphy

Rebekah Matthews

Heaven for Everyone

Allison Slavick

Ornithology

Nicole Monaghan

Dog

Robert Swartwood

Fright X

Shannon Derby

How to Tell Your Sister You Love Her

HOT METAL BRIDGE. NEW ISSUE. SPRING 2011

2011-04-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Peep game:

http://hotmetalbridge.org/

FLASH FICTION

Jen Gann: “My White Apartment”

James Joseph Brown: “Snowman”

Amy Wright: “Bustling City”

Sherrie Flick: “The Remembering”

Tiegen Kosiak: “Ella and the Elephant”

J. A. Tyler: “Inside of my History are These Moments”

Eric Beeny: “A New Amnesia” and “Smoke”

Roy Buck: “Drag Queen Savior”

Damian Dressick: “Worship, Kinship, Imitation, Flattery”

Interview: Lydia Davis

NONFICTION

Sarah Simkin: “For Insurance Purposes: These Words Do Not Define Me”

Jesse Goolsby: “Not an Emergency”

Page McBee: “Giving Up the Ghost”

POETRY

Sherman Alexie: “The Search Engine,” “Love Song, with Anti-Coagulant”

Daniel Berkner: “Among the Winter Beginning,” “At Daybreak,” “The Art of Conversation,” “Never Again am I Allowed to Return to an Island”

Nicelle Davis: “Uses for a Witch’s Eye—1.a Jaw Stopper,” “Uses for a Witch’s Eye—1.b Jaw Stopper.”

Darren C. Demaree: “EMILY AS RAG AND BONE”

Taylor Eagan: “one by one, becoming shade”

Ryan Luz: “John Rambo,” “Fathoms”

Mandy Malloy: “Don’t Tip-Toe Past the Witch’s Pool,” “no past tense”

Adam Million: “Bottomland,” “South”

Tera Vale Ragan: “The Monday Garbage Man,” “There was a seed planted in a young boy’s head of the genus, bad word.”

Ciara Shuttleworth: “Taking Flight”

Eliot Khalil Wilson: “At the Wealthy Christian College,” “Senior Night at the Mystic Lake Casino”

LONGER FICTION

Richard Gegick: “Playing Cards”

Ethan Chatagnier: “Eulogies for Ms. Muir “

Megan Berlin Alderson: “Tell Me”

Olivia Kate Cerrone: “The Hunger Saint” excerpt of a novel with the same name

TOP 10 -- 80'S HAIR BAND BALLADS

2011-04-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

... in no particular order

(although i do feel bad calling BAD COMPANY a hair band... sorta, which is also why there is no JOURNEY)

FIREHOUSE

LOVE OF A LIFETIME

LA GUNS

BALLAD OF JANE

MR. BIG

NEXT TO BE WITH YOU

FASTER PUSSYCAT

HOUSE OF PAIN

BAD COMPANY

IF YOU NEEDED SOMEBODY

TESLA

LOVE SONG

WARRANT

HEAVEN

BON JOVI

NEVER SAY GOODBYE

DEF LEPPARD

LOVE BITES

SKID ROW

I REMEMBER YOU

FAB 5. SEAN KILPATRICK & BRANDI WELLS

2011-04-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

SEAN KILPATRICK

No Colony

http://nocolony.com/kilpatrick.html

Spork

http://sporkpress.com/weeklies/prose/archives/00000049.html

Wigleaf

http://wigleaf.com/200812progress.htm

Magic Helicopter Press

http://magichelicopterpress.com/spurious.htm

Everyday Genius

http://www.everyday-genius.com/2010/04/sean-kilpatrick.html

BRANDI WELLS

POISONHORSE

http://doubleshiny.blogspot.com/2010/10/poisonhorse.html

INSTRUCTIONAL

http://www.pankmagazine.com/brandi-wells/

MORTIMER

http://www.elimae.com/2008/December/Mortimer.html

BEETLES

http://kenbaumann.com/np_vol3/bwells.html

WE HAVE BEEN DATING SO LONG I FEEL LIKE I CAN TELL YOU ANYTHING

http://www.decompmagazine.com/all-poetrytwo.htm#Brandi Wells

WHAT YOU NEED. RED SHOES. KATIE GAVIN

2011-04-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

HEY SMALL PRESS. GETTING BOOKS INTO LIBRARIES

2011-04-10T09:10:00.001-07:00

From their website:

http://www.heysmallpress.org/

We are Hey Small Press!, a non-profit project promoting independent publishers to public libraries all over the United States. Founded by current and former public library employees, we exist to encourage libraries to acquire small and independent press books. We love good books and want them on library shelves!

Our method is three-fold. One: we select and review ten new or upcoming titles per month. Two: we send our list to public librarians and encourage them to order the titles. Three: we also make available all our reviews to the public. Our goal is for readers across the country to walk into their public library every month with our list of small press books and encourage librarians to order them.

Our long term goals include regional book lists, poetry and non-fiction lists, and the organizing and promotion of live readings by small press writers in public libraries.

DOGZPLOT SUPERMOJOMANIA FREAKOUT TOUR AND COUNTRY EXPO

2011-04-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

BRAND NEW WEBSITE FOR THIS:

http://www.supermojomania2011.blogspot.com/

DOGZPLOT is stomping through the Midwest from July 12 - 26 for a summer reading tour full of fiction, poetry, book festivals, music, friends, and mayhem. Please join us anywhere and everywhere along the way. Big thanks to everyone who continues to read, encourage, submit their flash fiction, help provide funding, and participate with us in any and all capacities. Your encouragement is appreciated much much more than you know.

This year we have plenty of company. Check out our lists ofcities, readers, presses, and venues we plan on sharing this experience with. And most importantly, please come join us if you can.

CAKETRAIN 2011 CHAPBOOK CONTEST WINNERS. SARAH ROSE ETTER. SARA LEVINE

2011-04-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

SARAH ROSE ETTER

TONGUE PARTY

“Each small story is like sliding in skates over an ice pond—overhead beauty, victorious shouts, still soul, gigantic bravery.”

-- Deb Olin Unferth, Revolution

“Sarah Rose Etter’s Tongue Party is astonishing and unexpected and one of the finest books you will read this year. Her stories are beautiful and wildly imaginative and at times disturbing in dark, elegant ways. The women in her stories are strong and they are desperate, often in positions where they have to sacrifice far too much of themselves. And yet, through Sarah Rose’s masterful writing, these women become so much more. They become brave and defiant and like the stories themselves, absolutely unforgettable.”

-- Roxane Gay, Ayiti

“Tongue Party is fiction for we who are hungry, for those among us who ache, who crave, who have appetites that cannot be sated, who have holes in their hearts that will not easily be healed. In each of these short tales, Sarah Rose Etter remind us that it is not just what we are afraid to lose that will come to define us, but also the strange methods by which we cover over that loss, once it has come to pass. With fiercest compassion, a sharp wit, and unflinching prose, Etter delivers not only what it is that we are wanting but also the ways by which we need, by which we are always, all of us, needing.”

-- Matt Bell, How They Were Found

“I love Etter’s world of universal desires that drive each story into unexpected places, to koala tides and tongue parties. It’s a world bursting with the need to be both someone and no one, where characters are kept close but viewed from behind things, such as glass and chicken masks. Each word, each moment surprises. It’s a wondrous thing.”

-- Randall Brown, Mad to Live

“There are stories that show you the way things are, and ones that show you the way things might be, and then there are stories that tear you apart and build different things from the pieces. You might be happy with some of them, but I assure you, you won’t like them all. Sarah Rose Etter isn’t a writer; she’s a witch, and this is a house and storm of spells.”

-- Ben Loory, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

SARA LEVINE

SHORT DARK ORACLES

“This book is a wonder. I laughed out loud early and kept on laughing, sometimes with recognition, sometimes with sheer delight at the precision with which Levine portrays the bafflement of being human and interacting with other humans. Read Short Dark Oracles for yourself and prepare to be both charmed and alarmed.”

-- Matthea Harvey, Modern Life

“Hemingway said somewhere that he wanted to write like Cezanne painted. In her vivid hyper-real collection, Short Dark Oracles, Sara Levine paints her way into even sharper and more dangerous corners. The fictions are an impasto of primed primary colors, prose that cuts a swath in brilliant swatches of saturated power that pops, punches, turns every turn into a fat flat facet, hard as a side of diamond, steel still-lives, glittering, metallic, distilled. Ernest be damned, I want to write like Sara Levine writes.”

-- Michael Martone, Four and a Quarter

“Levine’s narrators are self-aware, self-deprecating, sardonic and more than a little funny. ‘The Fainting Couch’ alone is worth the price of admission, but Oracles offers other treasures just as lovely.”

-- Cooper Renner, Mosefolket

“Hilarious and triumphant, these stories will startle you on every page, and on every page you will marvel over Levine’s intelligent, passionate mind.”

-- Deb Olin Unferth, Revolution

ALL INFO INCLUDING HOW TO ORDER:

http://www.caketrain.org/

AWP 2012 CHICAGO KICK-OFF PARTY

2011-04-06T20:17:00.001-07:00

Yeah, we're really early on this. See you there...

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=205738829449960

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: ERIC BEENY

2011-04-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Eric Beeny (b. 1981) is the author of THE DYING BLOOM (Pangur Ban Party, 2009), SNOWING FIREFLIES (Folded Word Press, 2010), OF CREATURES (Gold Wake Press, 2010), PSEUDO-MASOCHISM (Medulla Publishing, 2011), MILK LIKE A MELTED GHOST (Thumbscrews Press, 2011), and some other things. He blogs at Dead End on Progressive Ave. (http://ericbeeny.blogspot.com).

SNOWING FIREFLIES

http://www.foldedword.com/buy/beeny.html

Eric Beeny blurs the line between prose and poetry in this collection. His seemingly-simple tales of the way we cope with love and loss are woven into a rhythmic cloth. Rich in detail, even the Twitter-sized stories leave an afterimage.

Praise for Eric's work:

A quaint and mysterious little collection that balances the unreal and real. Eric Beeny writes with a child-like wonder, resulting in powerful surreal images, and a yearning for human connection. It’s a satisfying balancing act that I enjoyed immensely. I’m looking forward to the next thing Eric Beeny does. -- Shane Jones, Light Boxes

INTERVIEW

BG: Whether its making a snowangel in a mass of fireflies, growing an umbrella garden, or crumbs of words spilling out of people's mouths in the form of rainbows, your characters seem to be obsessed not only with the impossible, but with stretching the boundaries of imagination and thought and the natural world in order to control reality at a crucial moment in their lives, where the outcome depends on their ability to have faith in the impossible. Were you conscious of this almost superhero like quality in some of your characters as you were writing, or have I just taken too many literary criticism classes in grad school?

EB: Your description of disturbances in the natural world occurring at crucial moments in the characters’ lives is right on. People turn to faith and religion to ‘guide’ them through these crucial moments. As a ‘non-believer’, and from a sociological standpoint, I find this sudden shift toward [g]od—toward a belief system on a strictly PRN basis during crises—very interesting. Also, it’s fun juxtaposing the irrational, emotional realities which inform human perception of the external world with the illogical and often magical possibilities of surrealism to reorganize the physical laws of that external world. Hemingway (certainly a heavy realist) was big on metonymically substituting physical and emotional anatomies with landscapes and other external, concrete details. I employed that method a lot, I think.

I'm what Robert Browning would call a "superstitious atheist." I think a lot about how, for an atheist, I write a lot of magical shit. This is probably the result of OCD, a condition resulting in various superstitions. It causes me to ‘catastrophize’ and, in that ‘catastrophization’, all kinds of irrational and illogical things flash through my brain if only one aspect of a particular routine deviates even slightly. I think everyone has OCD to some extent, and this is a major reason why religion exists. Catastrophic thinking leads to believing things happen for a reason, despite how illogical the relationship between cause and effect seems (e.g., if I don’t start walking up the stairs with my left foot while blinking twice I’ll fail my geometry midterm), and the effect (or what appears to be an effect, e.g., a natural disaster) must be caused by something other than humans, something conscious, omniscient, atemporal, something that cares about/‘has a stake in’ humans events and gets upset when humans do ‘bad’ things. But who?—Oh, there must be ‘[g]ods’. Wait, no, we’ve amended that—there’s only one ‘[g]od’ who controls everything. We make up stories about how we feel. It’s difficult contemplating these feelings/thoughts alone but, at least with other people, people can suffer alone together. Hence, religion.

BG: Lots of unforgettable things happen to these characters, often times in their youth; getting beat down on the playground then fleeing to find comfort from a mother who isn't there or sneaking around Niagara Falls and encountering a couple having sex. Sometimes there is redemption or resolution for these characters and sometimes their isn't. How do you choose which ones to save and which ones to let suffer? And how much of Eric Beeny's actual childhood is in these stories?

EB: Some moments are autobiographical. I did get beat up a lot as a kid. On the playground, in school, at home. I was one of only three or four white people in the schools I went to from pre-k to junior high, so I was a ‘good target’, or something. We lived in ‘the projects’ until I was eight or nine, then we moved to the Black Rock/Riverside area of Buffalo, which wasn’t much better in terms of violence/crime. Throughout my childhood, my dad wasn’t there much. He lived with us but spent all his time at work, so I didn’t really see him. When he was around, he was too tired and often aggressive. I spent most of my time with my mom and sister, or just alone in my room playing with a few Legos. The only story in Fireflies featuring a father figure is the last one, “Staycation.”

I don’t see being ‘saved’ as being the end of ‘suffering’. I don’t think any of these characters are ‘saved’ at all (especially given that word’s religious implications). There is no ‘redemption’. I don’t see things ever resolving for these characters. They simply exist, conscious of their environments without questioning the logic of their environments (at least in terms of the laws of physics). At the same time, they’re no more aware of the implications of the emotional realities which seem to affect (and are affected by) the ‘real world’ they are trying desperately to alter (control) or escape through fantasy. Still, I don’t think these characters consciously control their environments—at least not in any concrete sense—any more than those environments are merely a reflection of their complete lack of ‘control’.

BG: The relationships between the male and female characters all seem so tender, so fragile, there seems to be so much disconnect; the males want communication, the females make themselves emotionally unavailable, the males want touch and feeling, the females shy away. It seems that the males have no natural solutions for this, so they turn again to the supernatural world for answers. What is it about these characters that begs for a magical solution to their problems? Why can't they figure things out on their own without eating fiberglass cotton candy or turning each other into balloons? But really, what I wanna know playa, how's Eric doing with the ladies? Who's the woman that broke your heart? Feel free to throw some whiskey down and get Freudian if you need to. We love you.

EB: Well said. Yeah, I like the idea of reversing ‘traditional’ or ‘socially perceived/acceptable’ gender roles. The males retreating toward magic is the same as any ‘nerd’s’ retreat into fantasy or RPG’s. It’s the same, too, with the human ‘need’ to have faith in [g]od (and to find like-minded people to share things with). People endure tragedy by clinging to faith, finding inspiration in biblical accounts like Job or whatever, hoping some externally produced miracle of fortune will alleviate their suffering—suffering the [g]od they believe in has caused by creating them, suffering which, if the story of Job is any indication (and, of course, if there is a [g]od), [g]od actively engages in for [h]is own personal pleasure. If a ‘miracle’ can be defined as any deviation in the physics laws of the natural world, then the characters in Fireflies are just like real humans who look for meaning in their lives and find none—so they invent meaning through fantasy. This seems like an organic, unconscious process in which they find only the ‘miracles’ they want to find.

How am I doing with the ladies? I guess ‘not good’ would be one way of putting it. Whatever ‘good’ means. I’ve stopped looking for anything like a relationship, which is probably ‘good’ for whoever I would be looking for. I’ve got OCD, anxiety/depression, I’m a recovering alcoholic (so I’ll have to pass on the whiskey), unemployed, a shitty writer, etc. I’ve got lots of shit I’d rather not hang on someone else’s hat rack (sorry for hanging it here), and (as I’m of course not the only person ‘suffering’ in the world) I’d certainly rather not deal with someone else’s problems at this point in my life. I’ve been single for about 6 years. I’m very lonely sometimes.

The woman who broke my heart…that would be my baby’s momma. I think it would’ve been a lot easier to get over her if I didn’t have to see her all the time, because of our daughter. It’s hard. I still love her, but I don’t think it’s in ‘that way’ anymore. It’s weird how you never really ‘get over’ someone (if you’re the one who didn’t want things to end), you just come to accept not being able to be with them—to accept that they’ve moved on and are in another relationship, that your daughter’s spending time with some other guy. It’s total alpha-male territorial bullshit, but it’s still hard to face and understand. Most of all, at this point in my life, I just want someone to cuddle with.

BG: There are very subtle connections between adult and child activities in this story, finger painting, adventures involving globes and maps, camping, playing with magnets, bugs, rainbows, etc. Can you talk a little bit about this? How and why these activities exist in childhood and carry over into adulthood? How are they significant to the characters and their lives and relationships?

EB: I think adults are just big children. I don’t think there is such a thing as ‘maturity’. We only manifest our childish behaviors differently as adults. Rather than think for ourselves, we still adhere to what other perceived authority figures tell us is right and wrong (i.e., politicians and pundits, religious leaders, mainstream news outlets, etc.), who serve (for their own benefit) as our surrogate parents. Rather than play blocks or freeze tag with friends, we jump off cliffs or out of airplanes for fun. Rather than throw tantrums because we can’t have a Reese’s peanut butter cup, we start wars and kill thousands of people we don’t know over oil and other made-up ‘strategic’ bullshit. We don’t grow up. We just get bigger.

Adults like to think of themselves as ‘mature’, but still behave like idiots. Innocence in the childhood activities of Fireflies is an effort to counteract the adult methods of occupying time listed above. I think as children we’re much smarter, more intuitive, much more capable of being in awe of something, to be completely aware but not fully understand. So much is lost in the course of getting bigger, so much lost in learning things. I wanted to give these characters back their innocence (after so much has been taken from them). I’m working on a novel now called Children, a subplot of which features adults holding children hostage hoping to find the secret to their small size and ability to have fun, and the children, tortured by the adults for this secret, figure out the only way to escape is to get bigger and become adults themselves. So again, no redemption in their being co-opted, in their growing chronologically closer to death just to simply survive.

BG: I really love the last story of the collection, Staycation, where a family camps in their own backyard. I kept thinking about their backstory and what their lives were like before the trip and how they had changed afterwards. For me, the magic was in the hidden story, the transformation of the characters after being together for so long and how quality time like that can bind a family together. In a way, that's what these characters were looking for all along; cohesive, meaningful connections with other warm blooded people who love them unconditionally. In that sense, does this story serve as the ultimate redemption for all the characters, or am I doing the MFA literary criticism thing again and I'm off in a different realm.

EB: Thanks for pointing that out! No, definitely not off in another realm. I chose this as the final story in the collection for a few reasons: It’s the longest of all the stories, it’s the only story in which the characters have names, and it seemed in many ways the ultimate expression/conclusion of the preceding stories—of what they were trying to ‘accomplish’. In the earlier stories, the characters who feel they are experiencing ‘love’ are ultimately alone and do not (yet) understand ‘love’ (“Goosebump Braille,” “Helium Prophylactic” and “Just a Normal Greeting”). They approach it as if they’ve never felt it before and, by feeling it (“Snowing Fireflies” and “The Umbrella Garden”)—or surviving its absence (“Invisible Fog” and “Lovers”)—, they’re learning about themselves (if ‘love’ can be considered anything other than mere chemical and hormonal reaction to a particular stimuli, which I don’t think it can).

In other stories, there is only one character, literally alone but experiencing no emotion (“Shovel” and “At the Science Museum”), and still in others the one character is alone experiencing emotion with no access to help (“Clouds” and “The Lost Boy Scout”). So “Staycation” seems like a potential flash forward for any one of these characters in which they feel they’ve ‘matured’ (intentionally contradicting my theory on ‘growing up’), that they’ve learned who they are and have developed an identity (hence, the protagonist finally has a name, a wife he feels he knows, and children they both have given names to—and the story itself adopts a more traditional narrative).

This is also maybe the most ‘realistic’ of the stories. The protagonist loses his job, wants to buy a pet bird to replace his kids’ bird that died, which they buried in the backyard. They’d already had the staycation planned, but it now becomes a symbol of his desire to leave everything behind, and his final statement (“Feels like we’re not even here.”) is his way of distancing himself from his life, from the family he’s helped create and the dwindling options it’s ultimately left him with (especially now with no job). Because of this there’s definitely an intense loneliness and guilt to him.

Despite his fear and not knowing what to do, he wants to maintain the life he’s created, just under different circumstances. He not only lies to himself to get through it. When his daughter asks where their dead pet is, he feels he’s lying to her by saying “up there in birdie heaven.” As a father, I’m very interested in the ways parents lie to their children to get them to ‘behave’ (religion and the concept of [g]od, to me, being the biggest lie). (Religious and political leaders use the concept of [g]od, as well, to motivate citizens to ‘behave’.)

BG: And a final question. For anyone reading this, there is a context for this question that has nothing to do with the story collection. Having met Eric "Beeny Bone" I know he shares my love for rap music, especially 90's rap (it's greatest decade). What are the top 10 rappers of all time and the top 10 albums. You can lump groups together as one, except for NWA, that's sorta cheating.

EB: Nice! Yeah, NWA is, of course, the shit, especially the way they opened things up politically. I can’t understand why people claim hip-hop is not an art form. Even the most violent rap music is no different than the medieval warrior culture poetry we all studied in high school. Beowulf, the King Arthur legends, etc. These poems/stories are immensely analogous to the violent qualities conservatives denigrate in rap music: plundering, pillaging, misogyny, boasting, exaggeration of one’s powers, etc. These two seemingly disparate cultures (Anglo-Saxon warrior culture poetry and ‘urban’ America) tackle the same themes. The violence depicted by Anglo-Saxons is, of course, perfectly acceptable (even canonized), but once it comes from African-Americans it becomes a force which threatens to ‘corrupt’ the white youth of America.

The real violence is the fact that white corporate America exploits and perpetuates an accepted view of African-American culture—one which whites have socially, economically and politically forced African-Americans into—to make money off their suffering. Mainstream record companies want ignorant-ass rappers getting constant airplay because it allows white youth to experience what they perceive as ‘black culture’ vicariously while keeping them afraid of what they’re trying so hard to emulate—so their fascination ultimately morphs into racism.

I feel very strongly about these ideas because I grew up in ‘the projects’, where I was the minority. As I mentioned, I was one of only three or four other white people in my schools from pre-k to junior high. I grew up in poverty. I’ve seen what America does to people. Rap music (just one expression of the Hip-Hop culture) is a direct reflection of this experience and, through its similarities with Anglo-Saxon warrior culture poetry, it’s obvious how the ideology of self-loathing permeates throughout the African-American community, just as it did during British imperial/colonial reign over most of the world from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The overtly racist ideology which the British empire forcefully promoted still exists today.

So, the idea of ‘black-on-black violence’ is incredibly appealing to white corporate America trying to sell that image back to blacks hoping to perpetuate its effects—to, in effect (“in effect”—remember that?), keep blacks in their place socially and politically while teaching them the only way out of the poverty they’ve endured for generations is to kill each other with drugs and guns, or to rap about drugs and guns to get those who don’t make it out rapping about drugs and guns to keep killing each other with drugs and guns—, and also selling this image to white youth who wish they had problems big enough to solve through the very violence they cathartically admire in rap music.

Anyway, I agree, Floatthe 90’s was definitely the greatest era in hip-hop because these ideas were being expressed by emerging socially conscious groups like Public Enemy, KRS-One/BDP, Wu-Tang Clan, De La Soul, etc. My 10 favorite rappers of all time…I don’t even know. Based on flow, lyrical content, beats. I think my list would look something like this, in no particular order:

MF Doom, Del the Funky Homosapien, Aesop Rock, Holocaust (AKA Warcloud, AKA Frank the Robot Tank), The GZA, Mos Def, Rakim, Styles P, Jadakiss, Eminem. But I'm leaving out so many. Top 10 albums would maybe go something like: MF Doom’s MM..Food?, MF Doom and Madlib’s Madvillainy, Del the Funky Homosapien’s Deltron 3030, Aesop Rock’s Float, Aesop Rock’s Labor Days, Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides, Talib Kweli’s Train of Thought, Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die, Killah Priest’s Heavy Mental and MHz’s Tablescraps. But there’s also Eric B. and Rakim’s Follow the Leader and De La Soul’s Stakes is High and so much else. I can’t pick and feel good about what I’ve picked. It will always feel like there’s so much I left out.

ML PRESS. SMARTER AND LOUDER THAN ALL ROARING

2011-03-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

MUDLUSCIOUS 15

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