XTX. NORMALLY SPECIAL. TINY HARDCORE PRESS

NORMALLY SPECIAL is our first title, a collection of 23 big, fierce stories by XTX.

Table of Contents:

For the Girl Who Doesn’t Know She Has Everything
The Duty Mouths Bring
Water is Thrown on the Witch
The Importance of Folding Towels
Standoff
Father’s Day
Marci is Going to Shoot Up Meth With Her Friend
She Who Subjected the Sun
For Her
The Honking Was Deafening
Their Daughter Played With the Boxes
The Mill Pond
Good Boy, Fritos
A Brief History of Masturbation
Fireflies
Exactly Raisins
I Love My Dad, My Dad Loves Me
There was no mother in that house. There were a lot of boys and men and there was me. That is all. That is how it was.
An Unsteady Place
Because Seven Ate Nine
I Wish They Knew
Things I Could Tell You
Because I Am Not a Monster

Samples:

Standoff, Word Riot, September 2010

She Who Subjected The Sun, Emprise Review, November 2010

Because Seven Ate Nine, Wigleaf, November 2010

NORMALLY SPECIAL will be released on March 1, 2011. You can pre-order the book now.

BEN TANZER. YOU CAN MAKE HIM LIKE YOU. ARTISTICALLY DECLINED PRESS

You Can Make Him Like You, ADP's next book and Ben Tanzer's third novel is due in April and preorders (including a special, limited deluxe edition) will be available in the coming weeks. We couldn't be more excited to get this book out in the world. For now, bask in the glory of its cover. There's more to come soon.

THE BROKEN BLURB CHALLENGE. FIX IT BROKEN

FIX IT BROKEN has realized something. Something big. While riding the subway, waiting in line for food, and staggering down the street, we have realized the world is one big puzzle. A puzzle of stories, all scattered and dispersed, and who knows if the pieces even fit together?

What we’re trying to say is, we all encounter stories. Sometimes we read them, sometimes we write them, and sometimes we watch or listen to them. What we want to bring to your attention is the millions of fragments of stories that we come across each day. We’ll call them Broken Blurbs. Little snippets of a conversation, a quick bit of plot, dialogue from a character we’ll never know. We hear these broken sentences uttered by strangers each day in passing, and they act as insight into stories we’ll never hear the end of, or introductions to characters we will never put a face to. Sometimes, these Broken Blurbs, whether comedic or wise, stick with us. They stand out. They leave their mark.

FIX IT BROKEN has devised a plan in order to safeguard these Broken Blurb gems, the ones that don’t deserve to be taken by the wind and whirled into oblivion. We’re asking you to pay close attention next time you hold the door for an old couple, or sit next to the crazy guy on the bus. Keep your ears alert while you take the daily commute or return that ugly Christmas sweater at the mall.

We hope to put a little “issue” together, at some point in 2011, of the best submitted stumbled-upon-phrases.

After choosing a select few “Best Broken Blurbs” they will act as writing prompts, and the best short-short fiction pieces to incorporate the Blurb will be featured in the issue, along with several notable Broken Blurbs themselves.

It all starts with your ears and other peoples lives, so get going.

Submission Guidelines

-Submit up to three Broken Blurbs to: FIXITBROKEN@YAHOO.COM
-Include your name and the location in which you heard the Broken Blurb.
-Please write “Broken Blurb Submission” in the subject line of the email.

Some examples that we’ve heard within the past few weeks:

“I thought Spike Lee was Asian.”

“Is it Memento, or is it Bukowski and Beckett?”

“I was walking home the other night and I literally saw Courtney Love peeing on a stoop.”

“Like his sweater grew wings.”

You get the idea, right?

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE. 4.4

Another great issue of PRICK OF THE SPINDLE. here's just a quick mention of some of what you're getting. Read the rest HERE.

Andrew Bowen
Robert, the Architect

Andrew Wallace Chamings
The Piano Lesson

Leah Erickson
The Night Brides

Regina Faunes
Study Abroad

Marko Fong
The Amnesia Academy

Jennifer Juneau
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

Peter D. Kramer
The Name of the Helper

Reprint in Memoriam:
Cami Park
When You Heard

Brian Mihok
Sharp Shooter
Little Lubyanka

D. Quentin Miller
3 x 2

Justin Nicholes
Summer Ice

Jeanne Thornton
Temple of Zuul

Scott Tucker
Ousmane Would Like to Go Nightclubbing with Cadiatu

Donna D. Vitucci
Bliss

Valerie Vogrin
Apologies

SMALL PRESS HOLIDAY RECOMMENDATIONS. THANKS FOR THE SHOUT OUT BEN

Here are holiday book recommendations from BEN TANZER, JASON JORDAN, aand a few others over at KAREN THE SAMLL PRESS LIBRARIAN blog.

Monday, December 20, 2010
Small Press Holiday Recommendations: On the Eve of Winter Solstice

Today’s small press picks come from New York, Louisville, and Chicago. Long before making her acquaintance, I remember poet Maggie Balistreri’s brilliant chapbook The Evasion-English Dictionary (since picked up by Melville House) from the consignment shelf at St. Mark’s Bookshop. Later I was thrilled when I heard she was going to library school, and again when she got a job as a librarian at the Poets House, now located in Battery Park City. Fiction writer Jason Jordan was the Beard Guy I used to see at all the New Yinzer literary events, but I finally met him officially when Amy Guth came into Pittsburgh for a reading. I remember seeing Amy talking to Jason at ModernFormations: Realizing how well she knew Beard Guy from cyberspace was one of the first moments I understood the extent of the online small press community. Jason has since left Pittsburgh and I miss seeing him around. I met the always-hilarious Ben Tanzer when Scott McClanahan suggested I arrange a reading for him in December 2009: Ben (a fiction writer based in Chicago) was coming through Pittsburgh en route to a reading in West Virginia. I got Savannah Schroll Guz involved, and the resulting reading launched the Seasonal Shorts reading series, now held four times a year in Pittsburgh (and run by Savannah). Thanks to Maggie, Jason, and Ben for sharing their Small Press Picks today:

READ THE PICKS HERE

PAULA BOMER. BABY & OTHER STORIES. O! MAGAZINE

HELL YEAH

O! Magazine, January 2011.

Paula Bomer's BABY is #1 on the 10 Titles to Pick Up Now

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE. 4.3

Another excellent issue. I'd start with the fiction and work my way from there. PRICK OF THE SPINDLE 4.3

fiction

April E. Bacon
When the Sun is Glorious

Laura Bogart
Skin

Edmond Caldwell
An Affair

Kimberly Long Cockroft
Trip to Kamalganj
Mother Alice Laughing
Disappearances

Heather Fowler
A Companion to Minnow Lake: A Novelette

Sharon Goldner
The Landscape and Mrs. Patel

Sam Gridley
What Bubba Saw

Kevin P. Keating
Antiquing

Cami Park
When You Heard

K.R. Sands
What is Written, Sweet Sister?

James Schlatter
Every Creeping Thing

Kathryn Megan Starks
When You Hear This Sound

FIX IT BROKEN. ISSUE 1

“The Comfort of Dead Whales” – Harper Hull (Fashionable Fiction Winner)

Harper's majestic, yet eerie story about a man, his wife, a secluded island, and the mesmerizing remnants of a whale carcass, has been crowned Issue #1's Fashionable Fiction Winner. Kristian Woodmansee, of Elusive Designs, did a wonderful job creating the shirt to accompany the fiction piece. Kristian's design captures a sense of simplicity and subtle darkness that we feel pairs nicely with Harper's work, and of course is just plain cool to look at and wear. Shirts are limited, but they are for sale ($12) at Elusive Designs. All profit derived from shirt sales will act as a donation to FIX IT BROKEN, so that we can maintain our goal of bringing you quality fiction and fashionable t-shirts.

“Beware the Carousel” – Matthew Dexter

“There Ain’t No Sin and There Ain’t No Virtue” – Zoe Alexandra

“Meat” – Neil Richter

“The Comet Train” – Robert Vaughan

“Salamonster, During D.C.’s Destruction” – Sean Lyman Frasier

“The Lunatic and the Tiger Shark” – Crystal Beran

“I Became an Old Couple” – Greg Gerke

“Her Heart is a Screen Door, Too.”- Ryder Collins

Two Collaborative Pieces by Barry Graham and Peter Schwartz


Special Thanks to John Dermot Woods for the wonderful cover art, and Elusive Designs for helping create a great first t-shirt. Thanks to everyone who has supported FIX IT BROKEN. We hope you enjoy the first Issue.

READ ISSUE 1 HERE

WITNESS. CURTIS SMITH

WITNESS
nonfiction by Curtis Smith

150 pages. ISBN 978-1-934513-28-6
5" x 8", trade paperback

First edition - $18

Release date: December 16, 2010

Read a review from the SMALL PRESS REVIEWS

NOTHING OR NEXT TO NOTHING - barry graham

I know I haven't posted to the DOGZPLOT news blog in a long time, but I'm gonna get it up and running again as soon as I get back home to Michigan next week. But for now, here's one small piece of news:

If anyone is interested in reviewing the book, I would greatly appreciate it. It's a quick 120-ish page read. I'll send you a PDF now and then a hardcopy when it's released. Please and thanks. If so, please email: dogzplot.press@yahoo.com

Nothing or Next to Nothing
a novella by
Barry Graham

ISBN: 978-1-59948-290-3
Cover price: $9.95

Projected release date: May 31, 2011. The Advance Discount price of $5.50 will be available until May 17, 2011.

About the Author

Barry Graham received his MFA from Rutgers University, where he currently teaches writing. He is the author of The National Virginity Pledge, which was a finalist for the NGI Book Award for Short Story Fiction. One of the stories therein was awarded the 2009 Jumpmettle Award for Excellence in Fiction, and two other stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Graham is the flash fiction editor for DOGZPLOT.

Synopsis

After finding their mother dead at the breakfast table and subsequently being abandoned by their father, half-brother and sister, Derek and Daisy Kehoe are left to fend for themselves. Their relationship quickly suffers from patterned violence, abuse, and neglect, until Daisy herself disappears under curious circumstances. Derek slowly gets his life in order, finding stability through college, a steady relationship, and money he inherits through a series of botched armed robberies. But of course, nothing stays stable for long. Everything and everyone in Derek’s life has an ulterior motive, reasons for embracing him and reasons for throwing him away.

Comments

In a world in which nothing or next to nothing matters anymore, Barry Graham's hero Derek is doomed because he hasn't erased his last shred of decency yet. He suffers abuse, heartbreak, beatings, and ultimately the loss of the only person he ever cared for, because he can't believe in a world where a McDonald's restaurant might be the last church, and an okay BigMac our last prayer. Graham's book is an elegy to something we've lost without noticing or caring. It's a mean punch to the chin; it floors you, and still you'll be glad you took it.
--Stefan Kiesbye


Read the prologue in its entirety HERE

ORDER HERE

Any orders would be very very much appreciated. Please and thanks.

DOGZPLOT UPDATE

Not sure if anyone still reads this but I just wanted to give people an update in case you are.

1. DOGZPLOT FLASH FICTION has been recently redesigned and we will be posting new flashes any day now.

2. DOGZPLOT LITERARY JOURNAL is currently down until further notice. After the MAGIC ISSUE (which is coming soon), we will be flash fiction only and will post new flashes as soon as we accept them.

3. THIRD FACE is a new lit blog featuring some pretty great contributors. www.thirdface.com

4. FOX FORCE 5 will be shipping soon.

5. If you send anything to a dogzplot.com email address it will bounce back. Use dogzplot.press@yahoo.com for any and all things.

6. ACHILLES CHAPBOOKS are still going strong. PETER SCHWARTZ and NICOLLE ELIZABETH have recently released chapbooks. Check them out here: www.achilleschapbook.blogspot.com

7. Chapbooks from BEN TANZER and KENDRA GRANT MALONE coming soon.

Thanks for your continued patience and friendship. Word.

HAPPY 30TH - P MAN

SHORT STORY / MASTURBATION MONTH

XTX

THE TEMERITY OF IMPERFECTION

MONKEYBICYCLE

XTX

Here's a taste:

"We go to the farmers market and he makes shadow puppets for six little kids from a beam of nine am sunlight."

Read the rest here:
http://monkeybicycle.net/archive/xTx/temerity.html

THE UNDERSTANDING CAMPAIGN. JUSTIN SIROIS

www.understandingcampaign.org

WIGLEAF TOP 50

Amazing WIGLEAF TOP 50 this year guys. Thanks to SCOTT GARSON, RAVI MANGLA, and final judge BRIAN EVENSON for doing the do. Also thanks to the many talented writers and editors who make a list like this possible.

Congrats to a few DOGZPLOT contributors for their inclusion in the TOP 50 and the LONG SHORT LIST.

CHRISTOPHER KENNEDY
IN THE WHITE HOUR
http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/07/in-white-hour-christopher-kennedy.html

ALICIA GIFFORD
TANGO
http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/03/tango-alicia-gifford.html

ASHLEY KAUFMAN
SLEEP AID
http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/08/sleep-aid-ashley-kaufman.html

ANDREA KNEELAND
ANGRY
http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/10/angry-andrea-kneeland.html

KATE WYER
SINGLE MALT AND SHE'S BUYING
http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2009/05/single-malt-and-shes-buying-kate-wyer.html


Thanks again and congrats to everyne involved. Go check this shit out for yourself.
www.wigeaf.com

NY STATE OF MIND

A couple DOGZPLOT events in NYC. Hope to see everyone there.

bgraham@dogzplot.com for more details.

SOME WORDS ON DANIEL BAILEY'S THE DRUNK SONNETS

http://magichelicopterpress.com/drunk.htm

The Drunk Sonnets are obsessed with breathing and love and loneliness and Daniel’s inability to think and feel and function properly in the absence of a friend or a beer or a good woman. The poems are claustrophobic, an oxygen tank set to its highest setting while the man on the other end has embraced his demise, drunk, alone, but for memories of lost love; and for Bailey there is only one; she is everything and nothing and beautiful and careless:

I’M GLAD THAT YOU’RE SILL ALIVE AND DOING WELL
I’D HATE TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE YOU DON’T EXIST
I CAN SAY THAT HONESTLY, AND I’M GLAD I DON’T HAVE TO LIE
IF YOU KNOW ME, AND I THINK YOU DO, YOU KNOW I’M NOT A LIAR

EXCEPT FOR WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG IN MY LIFE
AND I HAVE TO BACK AWAY FOR A LITTLE WHILE
INTO ANOTHER CORNER OF LIFE WHERE I’LL SAY ANYTHING
TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE ME RIGHT NOW

I can’t remember reading an alcoholism this tender this vulnerable and heartbroken and incapable:

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE WANT LIFE TO MEAN SOMETHING
I WISH I WERE THE MOSS ON THE TREE STUMP IN ANOTHER STATE
AND WE NEVER ENDED UP SEEING EACH OTHER

I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT WHAT I DRINK EVERY NIGHT CAN MAKE ME FEEL
ANY DIFFERENT, AND I THINK WE’LL BE GONE FOREVER RIGHT NOW
I AM GONE AND YOU ARE GONE AND THAT IS IT

Ultimately, I’m not convinced that Daniel will make it. Reminiscent of the best parts of Plath’s Bell Jar, these sonnets are mad and hopeless. They offer no solutions, no redemption, just a human being stripped to blood and tiny fragments of muscle tissue who is just as uncertain of his escape as I am:

I CAN’T TALK RIGHT NOW WITH MY MOUTH FULL OF SAND
IF YOU WANT TO TALK LEAVE A MESSAGE AND I WILL RESPOND
AT A BETTER TIME I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND
BUT I UNDERSTAND IF YOU NEVER DO

AND IF I NEVER DO
AND IF WHAT WAS GOOD WAS NOT REALLY GOOD
BUT WE WERE TRYING TOO HARD TO BE GOOD

God bless you Daniel Bailey.

ANIMAL MAGNETISM. ALEXANDRA ISACSON. KILL AUTHOR

ALEXANDRA ISACSON

KILL AUTHOR 6

ANIMAL MAGNETISM

http://killauthor.com/issuesix/alexandra-isacson/


Read a little piece here:

"The anesthetized man rose from the surgery table and grabbed the young nurse around the waist. The last time a man surprised her like that she was dancing at a biker bar in a copper ghost town."

REVIEWS OF ACHILLES CHAPBOOKS

Thanks to SALVATORE PANE and the folks at PANK for their fine review of NICOLLE ELIZABETH's THREADBARE VON BARREN. Here's a little piece of Salvatore's wise words:

"These pieces are story distilled to the very core and are almost too personal for narrative, too close to the surface to shape with illusions of form and structure. What we’re left with is a powerful rawness and urgency that only grow with each subsequent reading. Only then is the reader finally able to grasp the emotional gravitas at play."

Read the rest here:
http://www.pankmagazine.com/pankblog/?p=3856


Thanks to MARC SCHUSTER at the SMALL PRESS REVIEWS for his excellent review of PETER SCHWARTZ's, OLD MEN, GIRLS, AND MONSTERS. Here's a brain teaser:

"The monsters named in the title of this slim volume are humans — or, at the very least, what humans become when we let our demons get the better of us. Throughout the proceedings, Schwartz presents a host of lonely, psychologically damaged characters, all of whom seek comfort in the company of others yet, tragically, lack the capacity to connect in a meaningful way."

Read the rest here:
http://smallpressreviews.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/old-men-girls-and-monsters/

Both Salvatore and Marc pretty much nailed these reviews. Good shit guys. Thanks for your friendship and support.

CORIUM MAGAZINE

CORIUM MAGAZINE
http://www.coriummagazine.com/

SHORT FICTION
Stephen Elliott
Donna D. Vitucci
Sean Lovelace
Alec Niedenthal
Adam Moorad

VERY SHORT FICTION
Kim Chinquee
Scott Garson
Andrea Kneeland
Kathy Fish
Sheldon Compton
Julie Babcock
Ryan Ridge
Beth Thomas
Laura Ellen Scott
Christina Murphy
Eric Beeny

POETRY
Shaindel Beers
Corey Mesler
Sam Rasnake
Rusty Barnes
Cami Park

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE 4.1

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE 4.1
http://www.prickofthespindle.com/index.htm

Jac Jemc
The End of the World

Hannah Oberman-Breindel
The Runners

Hannah Pass
Tiny Houses

Mimi Vaquer
And then the Phoenix

xTx
Yet, I Kneel. I Tie.

and other good shit from other good people...

MORE STUFF TO READ

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